Ebun Francis || After days of intrigue, bruised battles through leaked memo, press statement, planted stories and separate individual visits to the seat of power, the minister of state for Petroleum resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu and the group managing director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru on Tuesday came face to face with each other at the plenary session of the Nigeria Economic Summit holding in Abuja.
The two warring government officials for a moment put aside their bruised egos to canvass for building a more efficient and dynamic oil industry in Nigeria.
Baru was the first to arrive the venue of the event but the Junior minister of state for Petroleum resources arrived shortly after. The GMD of NNPC then went to receive him and the two men shook hands and spent a brief moment together discussing.
Speaking at the event, Kachikwu who chaired the Energy session, said that government was still working to make the regulatory environment in the industry better, pointing out that by the time the National Assembly completes its work on the PIB, “a much stronger, a much larger independent regulator would emerge.”
He said, “Whatever model of PIB that we are pushing, the point that Dr. Baru made is very, very key,” he said referring to the NNPC boss. “To see an independent regulator with very enormous powers, with less of political interference so that individuals could do their work and also whittle down the powers of the minister so that these institutions could work and work well.”
“The reality is that no one will work as a minister forever. You are going to hand over that portfolio. We should be looking for the system surviving and able to work well. So, it’s something that we are working with the National Assembly very hard on and I think if you look at the issues that come up, there are a lot of emphasis on that independence.
The group managing director of NNPC had earlier lamented that previous marginal field bidding rounds did not achieve the objectives the government set out to achieve, saying only nine out 14 of those who won the licenses were operational.
Stating that such development was not “not good enough”, Baru assured he was committed to work closely with the minister to address the concerns and constraints that hindered the remaining five companies from appropriately operating the marginal oil fields.”
Baru’s pledge to work closely with the minister remains to be seen given the bad blood existing between the two men which date back to Kachikwu’s days as the group managing director of NNPC.