The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Kachikwu – Baru

  • Sweeping the Kachikwu-Baru imroglio under the carpet

    As this column feared when the feud between the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, broke into the open, commentators and government officials were more likely to pay an unhealthy focus on the arithmetical details of the misunderstanding than on the more valuable and overarching issue of the president’s, and by implication the presidency’s, role in the scandal. This column warned that the temptation to introduce a red herring into the controversy must be resisted. Those warnings were spurned, and as the scandal peters out into what is evidently fatuity, hardly anyone is focusing on finding out what the president knew about the angry letter and when, and why he kept sepulchrally and perhaps disdainfully silent.

    The consensus now is that peace must be given a chance, and both Dr Kachikwu and Dr Baru must embrace each other for the good of the oil sector. It was unlikely even from the beginning that the president would say anything on the matter, for that isn’t the sort of challenge to his immutable worldview that triggers his fury. Now it is all but clear that he will say nothing. Nigerians learnt that he was angry behind closed doors, had looked into the matter, and was satisfied that no money was lost and no money was taken. It matters little that Dr Kachikwu did not talk of lost money or stolen money, but of processes that had become perverted, of complicity in high places, of dereliction of duty, and of gross insubordination — all culminating in sidelining him and rendering his office profoundly sinecure.

    More importantly for this column, and perhaps for many others too, is the minister’s clear reference to the manner he was shut out of the presidency — from any interactions with the president himself who is Minister of Petroleum Resources, and the reprehensible consequence for decision-making, appointments that have become unalterably lopsided, and the Camorra-like manner in which the ministry is run. This column had feared there would be little or no reference to those grave and substantial issues. Alas, there has been none. The NNPC boss said nothing about the controversial appointments in focus, the president said nothing about the supposed approvals for contracts whose names and details are woven in semantic fog, and little is being said about why Dr Kachikwu’s letter appeared lost in transit until someone had the presence of mind to whisper that though it was wrongly routed, the president still saw it and referred it for investigation, apparently interminably.

    The country is unlikely to hear much from the presidency henceforth about the letter and the furore it raised in the NNPC. A few chatter here and there, and now and again; but otherwise, nothing of substance until they figure out a way to rid themselves of the Kachikwu nuisance. The senate is investigating the matter. Here, too, there will be a lot of noise, some threat of fire and brimstone, and huge hoopla in the media, particularly in the feral social media whose steady diet is conspiracy theory. But otherwise, the public should expect a gradual but remorseless attenuation of the matter in a manner that enlivens the denizens of Aso Villa, all of whom are accomplished masterminds of palace intrigues and political shenanigans.

    This column will venture one more guess. The almost total manner the Buhari presidency has bewitched many Nigerians will preclude analysts from asking the right and grave questions about how the presidency is run and to what ultimate purpose. So far, to this column, there is nothing in the manner it is run, as the Kachikwu letter shows very clearly, that indicates altruism or patriotism. The disdain for the NNPC Act and the corporation’s handbook, the various controversial appointments, including surreally the NNPC Board itself, and the waspish filtering of naysayers from the corporation, all presage a very troubling time for Nigeria and for a commodity that should in the first instance be the exclusive preserve of the people of the oil rivers.

  • ACF seeks probe of Kachikwu-Baru feud

    ACF seeks probe of Kachikwu-Baru feud

    The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the feud between Minister of State for Petroleum Ibe Kachikwu and Group Managing Director Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Maikanti Baru.

    A communique at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, signed by Publicity Secretary Muhammad Ibrahim Biu,  said: “The meeting was concerned about the open altercation between the minister and GMD of NNPC, over allegations of contract awards bordering on managerial imperfection and acts of insubordination.

    “The ACF appeals to President Buhari to call the officers concerned to order, or minister and GMD resolve their differences amicably.

    “The meeting also observed the bad conditions of the country’s road network, rail tracks and other facilities, as a result of pressure on the facilities due to old age, improper maintenance, the rapid growth in population without corresponding increase in infrastructure over the years.

    “ACF, therefore, calls on government at all levels to intensify efforts by making adequate budgetary provision for the resuscitation and maintenance of the overstretched facilities, particularly in the North, to facilitate economic growth.

    “The alarming rate of drug addiction among the youth, particularly in the North, is disturbing and worrisome. The figure of about three  million youths said to be involved in illegal consumption of drugs is frightening, considering the dire health effects such consumption would have on the future generations of Nigerians.

    “Consequently, the meeting agreed to set up a committee that will examine the remote and immediate causes of this menace, and suggest practical solutions to the problem.”

    ACF reiterated its position that any restructuring meant to improve the unity, peaceful coexistence, stability and balanced development of the country, that comes with social justice, be based on justice, fairness and equity to all.

     

  • Kachikwu-Baru feud

    Kachikwu-Baru feud

    Hans Christian Anderson’s classic tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes, seems befitting as an analogy for recent happenings in Nigeria’s political arena. The latest intrigue to come out of that arena involves a vicious debacle between Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Maikanti Baru, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. Kachikwu has accused Baru of humiliating insubordination and disregard for due process in running the NNPC. These concerns, penned in a letter by Kachikwu to President Muhammadu Buhari, were leaked to the public last Tuesday.  As usual, the “wolves” have jumped on this story, and as some reckon, they may have even engineered it.

    In Anderson’s tale of an emperor who was known for his fondness for fine garments, two conmen posing as garment makers, managed to convince the emperor that they had created a very special garment that was so magnificent that it was invisible to people who are unfit for their positions or extremely stupid. Thrilled by the idea, the emperor contracts their services and they make a great show of dressing the emperor in his “invisible garment”. The emperor cannot see the so-called garment, but remains silent as he fears it means he is not fit for his position. The emperor then proceeds on a procession around town, but everyone remains silent also for fear of being branded stupid, until a child who does not know any better blots out the obvious – the emperor has no clothes on!

    Now, as anyone can guess, President Buhari is the emperor in this analogy. His obsessive anti-corruption crusade is his fondness and by extension, his weakness. In this present day scenario, however, the conmen are numerous and the emperor’s court that remained silent are represented by the president’s ministers, other appointees and advisers that keep singing his praises. Since he assumed office, the president has been treated, probably obliviously, to many invisible garments and has been left exposed and naked by members of his inner caucus who, perhaps, are more concerned about themselves than the president’s image or the overall direction of the country.

    That child in the crowd has manifested in different ways in Buhari’s administration, with the latest inadvertent manifestation in the person of Ibe Kachikwu. In truth, Kachikwu may have simply been addressing personal concerns to his person and his office, but what he may have inadvertently done is call out the president on his style of leadership.

    In his letter, Kachikwu states that he had been unable to secure an appointment to personally convey his concerns to the president “despite very many attempts”. His letter also alluded to the possibility that Baru and others had falsely painted him as corrupt, “anti-north” and in collusion with militants in the South – buzz words that are likely to sway the president. What this means is that, whether through the influence of others or through his own wilfulness or neglect, the president had insulated himself from an important member of his cabinet.

    If memory serves, Kachikwu is not the only one from the president’s ‘court’ that has raised alarm about the president’s confidants and advisers. Sometime in July this year, Aisha Buhari, the first lady, also referred to a cabal of “hyenas and jackals” within the president’s inner circle who had hijacked the presidency and were making the president dance to their tune. The first lady would later be described as a “suicide bomber from Yola” in a phone conversation between alleged members of that cabal. Such has been the rancour within the president’s inner caucus, pointing to a problem in the president’s leadership style.

    If Kachikwu’s allegations are to be believed, Baru is apparently a member of, or closely related to this cabal that we have been hearing about. Kachikwu backed up his claims by referring to repeated attempts by the cabal to gain approval from then Acting-President Yemi Osinbajo during the president’s medical leave, in circumvention of Kachikwu’s authority, which the vice president declined and referred back to Kachikwu. As the leaked letter revealed, the vice president’s reference was never honoured, only for the approvals to be granted upon Buhari’s return.

    On the assumption that these claims are true, it is difficult to rule out foul play at some level, with the net of liability reaching the president himself. The concern is, even if the president’s team is engaged in illicit games, no one seems to have warned the president about the possible (and actual) damage to the image of integrity that saw him sweep aside the past administration. The opposition has been watching and exploiting and this leak and others have been linked to the president’s detractors who ironically have also played the role of the child in the emperor’s analogy, by voicing the obvious truth about Buhari’s exposure.

    The foundation of Buhari’s government has been the relative free hand given to members of his cabinet and other appointees to pursue policies that ought to benefit his administration as a whole. However, such a strategy can only work if there is coherence in the motives and objectives of each individual appointee. As the Department of State Security, DSS, and Ibrahim Magu saga shows, there is little or no coherence within the presidency and the first lady’s theory is strengthened by the outcome in that case that turned out apparently against the president’s own wishes.

    Buhari’s leadership style was easy to maintain in his first outing as military head of state, where the chain of authority is clear. Even then, many observed, rightly or wrongly, that the late Tunde Idiagbon, Buhari’s number two man, was largely the real power-house of the government, in line with Buhari’s style of extensive delegation. Now, under a civilian administration, the lines are not so clear and the free reign approach has led to more problems than solutions. Buhari’s retention of the position of Minister for Petroleum Resources is certainly out of character, based on his leadership style. This fact and the way the Baru-led NNPC have behaved so far, can lead one to other conclusions.

    The overbearing confidence of the ‘northern wing’ has also brought a new dimension in a system that thrives on federal character. The president’s weakness to address this or his ignorance of the existence and effects of this dimension, contributes to the problem. This is why, even in sensitive positions, non-northern appointees like Kachikwu, while being sidelined, still feel the need to restate a nationalist, as opposed to anti-north, disposition.

    It is also significant that the emperor in the classic tale continued his procession as if nothing had happened even after the child revealed what was apparent. Will Buhari now do the same? There are reports that the president has met Kachikwu over the matter and possibly Baru too. Therefore, the president’s next move or lack of reaction will be very crucial in confirming or allaying fears over the truth about his integrity.

    However, the Kachikwu-Baru clash is not an isolated event, as many cries about the president’s apparent ‘nakedness’ have elicited no reactions from the man himself. From the Katsina DSS recruitments to selective prosecutions, the cards continue to stack against the president but his appointees continue to ignore the signs.

    Those that criticised Kachikwu over his handling of the matter should see the positives in the way events have played out. Buhari’s attention has finally been called to the matter. Perhaps, elevating Kachikwu to the position of a full Minister for Petroleum Resources (if the hyenas and jackals will concede) and personally working very closely with him, (as it should be), is one way that confidence in the president’s integrity can be somewhat restored in this matter.

    It appears the threads of Buhari’s garment of integrity and anti-corruption have worn out in the course of his administration, but the man carries on as though his popularity is as strong as when he took power. But who will tell the Emperor?

  • Kachikwu – Baru saga

    Kachikwu – Baru saga

    Days after, Nigerians are left to hazard wild guesses as to what transpired at the meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and his Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu last Friday over the latter’s letter in which he levelled allegations of grave misconduct against the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (GMD-NNPC), Maikanti Baru. We must admit to the strange ways of this presidency that a letter written by the minister since August did not get the President’s attention – not until it was leaked to the media last week. We surely have the President to thank for considering the contents at least weighty or sufficiently embarrassing to generate some action.  Never mind that the issues provoked are themselves a measure of how detached the chief steward is from his team and the government that he leads; or that it strikes at the heart of the charge that a cabal actually holds his government by the jugular – a charge that has unfortunately stuck; Nigerians should by now have a better appreciation of the character of the administration which, aside tardiness has since elevated intrigue to a directing principle of state policy.

    As for the issues raised by Kachikwu in his letter to the president, they are grave as they are disturbing. The minister complains of gross insubordination, subversion of rules, contempt for the rule of process and other sundry malfeasances against the GMD. He mentioned the $24 billion worth contracts said to have been made without the minister’s input or review by the NNPC board. No doubt, the coming days will be interesting as facts and ‘alternative facts’ are bandied around.

    For now, even if we grant that two big, somewhat irreconcilable egos are at play in the unfolding development, no less revealing is the high wire intrigues, the bad faith and the subterfuge also at play – something that has become the administration’s defining character. Whether it is Department of State Service (DSS) making the appointment of Ibrahim Magu difficult if not nigh impossible, or the justice ministry engaging the EFCC in needless turf wars, or even the executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme openly challenging the authority of his supervising minister for daring to ask him to proceed on leave while being investigated for sundry financial infractions, what we see are daily manifestation of the degenerative disease of institutional  disorder being systematically nurtured by the so-called reformist administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. Agreed, our politicians may have proven to be an inventive lot; however, if Nigerians had expected an administration headed by a former army General to have a handle on something as simple as running a tidy administration, what we see are daily manifestations of crass indiscipline, opportunism, and cronyism that the politicians are often deemed to be guilty of.

    We must of course insist that the issues do not appear quite complicated despite the attempts by spin doctors to obfuscate them. Understandably, a lot of heads are already swooning over the funds said to be involved which of course informs some of the most unhelpful interpolations being made. In a sector where some smart alecs have been known to walk away with billions of dollars merely by conjuring sweetheart deals, Nigerians’ concerns would seem understandable considering that we are dealing with amounts far in excess of the 2017 budget and even more so at a time billions of dollars are being borrowed in their name supposedly to finance critical projects.

    For sure, no one is yet talking about missing funds; we are instead dealing with what is potentially a return to the ancien regime under which our institutions are suborned to private interests. Coming from an administration which promises to deploy a new broom to clean things up, Nigerians obviously have reasons to be worried.

    This newspaper has helped in no small measure to lay out the issues. As against the strict administrative cum bureaucratic legalese which the NNPC has deemed fit to put out, there are obviously serious questions requiring clarification by both the Presidency and the corporation.

    Let me start with the obvious – which is the status of the minister of state. One part of the narrative being put out is that the NNPC Act did not recognize the office of the minister of state. And so the theory goes that “the NNPC Act is explicit that the petroleum minister is the chairman of the NNPC board.” Of course, no one argues about who the petroleum minister is. The real issue is whether the actors can by some administrative subterfuge, declare the position of Kachikwu as minister of state and chairman of the NNPC board, redundant without keeping the appointing authority in the know. This is where the bits of the puzzle begin to fall into place.

    See the picture? The President is the de facto petroleum minister. To help him effectively run the sector, he appoints Kachikwu as minister of state and chairman of the NNPC board. The President also names other members, one of which notably, is the President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari and then the GMD-NNPC, Maikanti Baru. The duo of Messrs Baru and Kyari are said to enjoy the confidence of the de facto petroleum minister. One works directly with the President; the other is said to nurse a grudge with Kachikwu for pushing him, earlier on, upstairs, if you like, into redundancy. Between the duo, Kachikwu’s fate would seem to be all but sealed. Could the duo have procured a parallel reporting line to the President while keeping Kachikwu in the dark?

    To imagine the joker:! ‘The Act establishing the NNPC stipulates that the chairman of the corporation’s board is the Minister of Petroleum Resources and NOT the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources’! The hierarchs of the NNPC also make the beautiful point that “the board of NNPC cannot approve contracts but they can review and give advice”.

    Really? The same statute says that makes clear that “Any contracts for a value beyond the financial limits of the NNPC Tenders Board will go via the Board to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval”?

    By the way, it is worth remembering that Kachikwu, the man originally head-hunted by President Buhari to help clean the NNPC’s augean stables is from South-south; Baru, the man who succeeded him as GMD is from the North-east and Kyari –the President’s major domo is also from the North-east!  For a presidency already carrying a terrible baggage of ethnicity, the perception of unfair treatment seems to have stoked fresh round of debates about equity and equal treatment for our federation’s  constituent parts!

    Although, the minister did not give anything away as to what options he might consider in the circumstance, it seems unlikely that the management of the petroleum sector will remain the same.

    The big issue of course is the management of the industry. As chairman of the NNPC board, Kachikwu has deftly outlined the issues begging for answers. As far as he is concerned, none of the contracts in question came either before the board or the Federal Executive Council for consideration – as required by the NNPC statutes. The NNPC on its part argues that due process was duly complied with.

    Suffice to say that in one of the contentious contracts – the Crude Oil Term Contract (COTC)- valued at over $10bn – the NNPC admitted that it ‘was presented to the approving authority (Mr. President) for consideration and approval’. Which of course raises the begging question: Does the presidential approval vitiate the requirement for the consideration and approval of the Federal Executive Council as spelt out in the NNPC handbook?