Gaius-Obaseki, NNPC GMD, other directors may be retired

The Daily Times of Nigeria By Our Correspondent

THE Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Jackson Gaius Obaseki, and other directors, may be retired, any time from now in a move to restore sanity in the oil sector, the DAILY TIMES has learnt.

Gaius-Obaseki, who was one of the pioneer staff that joined the services of the corporation, then known as Nigerian National Oil Corporation (NNOC) in July 1972 was appointed GMD in June 1999 by President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Feelers from the Presidency indicated that President Olusegun Obasanjo may have finally succumbed to pressure from political associates, diplomats and a cross section of Nigerians to remove the GMD from office over his unseeming rigidity which has resulted in the nation losing millions of dollars.

The last straw, Presidency sources explained, was the recent fuel scarcity, which not only created unnecessary panic to government but also almost robbed President Oba-sanjo one of his major achie-vements in the last four years.

Coming close to the elec-tions, the said crisis caused many of President Obasanjo’s opponents to use it as plat-form to gather votes “which the President and his Vice did not find funny” he said.

It was gathered that the recent fuel scarcity, which still lingers in some states except Lagos could have been averted if he GMD had listened to advice of his lieutenants.

As the United States/Iraq war drew nearer and crisis in Venezuela persisted, he was said to have been advised to beef up petroleum importation even though the price was hovering between $26 and $28 per barrel, Gaius Obaseki was said to be adamant, insisting to make do with available products, considering the cost.

“The President in one of his routine discussions with the GMD even asked him what he was doing to ensure steady supply when war broke out in Iraq,” the source said.

Another offence, it was gathered was the haphazardly performances of the nation’s four refineries. Between 1999 to date, no government has ever committed funds to maintain the refineries as this present government.

“Yet, what we are seeing is refineries with installed capacity of 445,000 barrels per day processing less then 150,000 bpd (about 45 per cent capacity utilization)”

“With this, the huge expenditure on the refineries was wasted as the nation solely relied on importation which was viewed in government circle as a serious matter”.

The source said the Presidency was rattled four days ago over the importation of adulterated products when NNPC claimed that all the fuel importers met the international importation standard.

Although, the source said the Presidency appreciated the contributions of Gaius- Obaseki in repositioning oil and gas sector, government believes that the sector used further re-engineering.

Gaius-Obaseki who will clock 58 in November has two more years to officially retire from service.

Two of his colleagues who joined NNPC the same time in 1972: Andrew Uzoigwe, Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production and Alex Ogedengbe, Group Executive Director, Engi-neering and Technical services had retired.

It was not clear who is likely to succeed the GMD, but sources said one of his management team members: Group Executive Director, Refining and Petrochemical, Mansur Ahmed, the Managing Director of National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO), Bunu Alibe, the Managing Director of Pipeline and Product, Marketing Company (PPNNC) and Dan Nzelu may be considered.