Mele Kyari highlights importance of sports as he rewards winners of NNPC tournament

Mele Kyari, group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), says staff of the corporation can’t deliver except they are physically and mentally happy. 

Kyari made this remark at the closing ceremony of the 12th edition of the NNPC Sports Fiesta held at the Chevron recreational centre in Lagos.

Kyari said he has identified physical and mental fitness as the bedrock of top performance by the management and staff of NNPC.

“The NNPC believes more in the welfare of its staff and we cannot expect staff to deliver on their jobs except they are happy both mentally and physically,” he said.

“We know the importance of sports activities in keeping the staff fit, hence the management will continue to support efforts like this to enable our staff to be involved in sports for fitness purposes and also have fun and network.”

Commending the NNPC’s human resources department, zonal coordinators and other members of the organising team for a successful week of activities, Kyari assured guests and participants of his continued support for the fiesta and other staff developmental initiatives.

He commended the Lagos zone of the corporation for winning the competition. He added that participants from every zone or subsidiary of the group and other stakeholders who worked to make the fiesta a success are all winners.

On her part, Oyeyemi Ladipo, NNPC’s human resources manger, said the fiesta had lived up to expectations of providing fitness and staff bonding.

She described the competition as a dress rehearsal for top performance at the forthcoming Nigerian oil and gas industry games.

She said one of the unique features of the 2020 edition of the games was the insistence by management that all competitors undertook and passed a medical fitness test before they are allowed to feature in the competition.

“Although we did not ask for medical fitness certificates in past editions of our games, we decided to introduce it this year to raise the standard, underline our health and safety values and show that we care for our staff,” she said.

The games, an internal sports initiative of the NNPC, held from January 12 to 18, and was staged in different venues including the Chevron recreational  club, Gbagada, Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, National Stadium, Surulere and Ikoyi Club, Lagos.