By Olatunde Dodondawa
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Kachalla Baru, has affirmed that he is willing and ready to do more if given the opportunity to serve his dear country, Nigeria.
Speaking to journalists on the sideline of the 2019 Annual Lecture Life Achievement Awards and Induction of New Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering in Lagos on Thursday, Baru stated that service to Nigeria is everybody’s call which everybody must obey.
When asked what his post-retirement plans would be and will he ever be ready to serve Nigeria again if such opportunity arises, Baru said “service to Nigeria is everybody’s call. Every Nigerian should be willing to serve the country when called upon to do so. The system that has been put in place is for a public servant to retire when he is 60 years or after 35 years in service. However, if it is the prerogative of the President (Muhammadu Buhari) to invite you to do more and of course you should look at it and you should do more. He (Buhari) graciously accepted my statutory retirement but if he says I should come and do more, I’m willing to serve.”
Baru will clock 60 years and retire from active service on 7th July 2019.
Baru was born on the 7th July 1959 and he is from Jama’are in Bauchi State, in the North-East geopolitical zone, but grew up in Jos, Plateau State.
He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, and is well respected within the profession.
He attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he obtained Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) with a first class honours. He also holds a Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering.
Until his appointment, he was Special Adviser (Upstream) to the Minister of State for Petroleum. Before he was appointed adviser, he was NNPC’s Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production.
He served as director of the NNPC-owned Carlson Services (UK) Limited between December 7, 2004 and January 25, 2007. He once served as GGM, Liquefied Natural Gas. He was also a GGM, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS). He was NNPC’s chief technical negotiator on the West African Gas Pipeline project from July 1999 to April 2004.
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday confirmed the appointment of the Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD) of the NNPC, Mele Kolo Kyari, as the new Group Managing Director of the corporation.
Mr Kyari from Borno State, comes to the job as the 19th GMD of the NNPC with a rich profile of professional and service credentials.
A geologist, Mr Kyari is known in the oil industry as a crude oil marketer with outfield pedigree in petroleum economics and crude oil and gas trading. With over 32 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, his tour of duty traversed the entire value chain of the petroleum industry.
“Under his watch, the Crude Oil Marketing Division of the NNPC has recorded noticeable transformation in the management and sales of the various Nigeria’s crude oil grades via an infusion of transparency and automation of the processes,” the NNPC said of him in his official profile on its website.
A 1987 Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) degree holder in Geology and Earth Science from the University of Maiduguri, Mr Kyari did his National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) as a Well Site Geologist with the Directorate of Foods, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI) between 1987 and 1988.
Between 1988 and 1991, he worked with the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency before joining the NNPC subsidiary, Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL), where he worked as a Seismic Data Processing Geophysicist in the Data Processing Department.
In 1998, Mr Kyari was appointed the Exploration Geophysicist Production Sharing Contract (PSC) of the National Petroleum Investments Management Services (NAPIMS) until 2004 when he became the Abuja Operations Manager of NAPIMS.
In 2006, he was appointed the Supervisor Production Sharing Contract (PSC), Crude Oil Marketing Department (COMD) of the NNPC, from where he rose to the position of Head, and later Manager of Production Contracts Management of the COMD between 2007 and 2014.
Mr Kyari was appointed General Manager Oil Stock Management, COMD where he worked till 2015 before being appointed Group General Manager, COMD and later Nigeria’s National Representative at OPEC.
