BY Fredrick Nwabufo
Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum, on Thursday told the senate committee on petroleum (downstream) that he has been misunderstood on his announcement of a reorganisation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), but activities at the corporation will “no longer be business as usual”.
On Tuesday, Kachikwu had announced the splitting of the corporation into five operational units: downstream, gas and power, refinery, ventures, corporate planning and services.
Addressing members of the senate committee on the issue, Kachikwu said: “I may have been misunderstood, but it won’t be business as usual. We will create new career paths and accountability for the people.
“We are going into a threshold where the majors are turning into a major focus. When I first joined, I set up 20 teams that dealt with 20 fixes.
“I have issued about 10,000 podcasts explaining what we are doing and where we are headed. We are moving at a very fast pace. I worked on this issue with the president and we kept it as confidential as we could.”
Olusola Adeyeye, senate chief whip, who had described the “unbundling” as illegal on the floor of the senate on Wednesday, said that the minister would have broken the law if he was turning the NNPC into a private company.
“We were told that you were unbundling the NNPC, which means you were taking money to form a private company,” he said.
“If that is what you did, you would have broken the law. You have subsequently told the nation that what you did was restructuring.
“As long as you have not created anything that is independent. You will need these workers and need to have them not to be afraid. From everything you have said, I have confidence in you, but laws are not based on sentiments.”
Briefing the press after the meeting, Tayo Alasoadura, chairman of the committee, said that the minister did not breach any law by by carrying out a reorganisation of the NNPC.
“We feel he has not contravened the law,” he said. “NNPC is a corporation that was made by a body in the national assembly so it was right to have come to us to discuss.”
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