President Buhari’s flawed MD NNPC Appointment by Polycarp Onwubiko

It is lamentable that 55 years after Nigeria political sovereignty, the political leadership has not come to terms with the critical factors that drive pragmatic and sustainable national development for the optimum realization of the overall weal and welfare of the people. It is shameful that the political leadership has not summoned the guts to play down on the major fault lines in national development viz: demeaning sentimental attachment to the self-serving interest of ethnic  groupings and feverish religious preferences in appointment into sensitive and strategic positions in government. This monstrous aberration has done incalculable damage to civilized governance in    Nigeria.
Appointments to strategic and sensitive positions during the military regimes were based on ethno-religious tendencies while throwing professionalism and competence to the wind. In civilian dispensations, political appointments sometimes were based on the direction and federal character but necessarily on core competence. The resultant effects have been impunity and malfeasance in governance, which have impacted negatively on achieving the goals and objectives of the MDA’s.
The bitter complaints from the south-east geo-political zone against the seemingly lopsided political appointments already being made by President Muhammadu Buhari might have occasioned a flawed appointment of the managing director of NNPC, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, who is a lawyer by profession. It appears that the appointment was apparently stampeded and therefore bereft of sufficient clarity of thought and realistic consultations which could have suited the highly specialized behemoth oil establishment. Sadly, people from the south-east geo-political had naively hailed the appointment without minding that he hails from Delta state.  The euphoria appeared to have verged on ‘a good share has come to us’. Sadly, no thought was given to the broader interest of the goals of the oil company by having a competent professional to cleanse the rot and malfeasance and professionally reposition the  oil company so as  to drive national development in line with international standard. Well- meaning  people in the south-east  were expected to fault the appointment of the managing director but unfortunately, the joined the bandwagon of ‘we have gotten one big appointment’.
In business management studies; it has been emphasized that for an organization to achieve its core mandate and objectives, the concept of “Line” and “Staff” functions must be applied to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. Thetheoretical  concept postulates that  organizations are identified by  their clarified objectives and therefore  must be manned according to specified academic qualifications relating to the goal behind the  establishment. A management expert James A. F. Stoner of Fordham University in his book “MANAGEMENT”2nd edition [1982] stated thus:”Every organization exists to achieve specific goals. The Line component may be defined as the part of  the organization that  is directly responsible for achieving these goals…For an example, a manufacturing company may limit Line functions to production and sales…when an organization is small, all positions may be Line roles; staff roles  added as the organization grows and it becomes useful to devote specialist time to assist Line members in doing their primary jobs…Staff refers to individuals or groups in an organization whose main functions are to provide service, advice or counsel to the Line, or perform an auditing or monitoring function. The concept of Staff includes all elements of the organization that are not classified as Line…An advisory functions are frequently located in legal, financial, and personnel departments”.
For instance, a journalist is appointed managing director of electronic and print media houses. The essence being that the buck stops at his table in terms of achieving the vision and mission, in addition to the triple functions of  informing, educating and entertaining the public. NNPC is a strategic and a very sensitive establishment for oil prospecting, exploration and drilling. The organizational chart should have at its apex the managing director who should be an engineer versed in the abstruse knowledge of oil prospecting, exploration and drilling. He performs the Line function along with the personnel with the same or closely related academic qualifications in the oil prospecting, exploration and drilling departments.
In the event of the President desiring to know in details the goings-on in the oil sector and establishment cum management; it is the managing director who will report immediately to him. Now that a lawyer is the MD of NNPC, he will report to the President along with Line personnel so as to be able to explain the maze of technicalities to satisfy the curiosity of the head of state.  When the need arises for academic papers to be presented in the national  and international fora, the lawyer MD will be a slave to the Line personnel since according Igbo proverb, “he cannot learn left hand at old age”. In other words, he cannot speak the exclusive language of oil engineers. Nobody needs to be told that the engineers in the NNPC abhor the flawed political appointment and wish that it would be reversed so that they would not be dampened in their attitude to work and motivation to re-position the oil corporation. The reality in Nigeria today is that many geo-political zones can boast of qualified engineers in the oil sector of the country’s economy.
It is therefore naïve to assume that Dr. Kachikwu who has worked in an oil establishment in the legal department for donkey’s years is eminently qualified to occupy the post of MD properly meant for a Line personnel in the behemoth oil organization like NNPC.  Of course, this type of appointment could only be seen in a country that is patently underscores due to the deteriorating effect of ethno-religious considerations and where merit and core competence are unconscionably throne to the garbage heap; and that is why the country is still groping in the dark and crawling 55 years after political sovereignty and independence.
The fact remains that President Buhari should without further delay reverse the fundamentally flawed appointment of the MD, NNPC and look for an engineer versed in oil prospecting, exploration and drilling from south-east or even Igbo speaking  Delta state . More importantly, he should ensure that the MDA’s are headed by ministers and special advisers who are with the requisite academic qualifications; and not reinvent the ugly past whereby somebody with a degree in Islamic or Christian religionist appointed as attorney general or health or finance minister. The change mantra of APC should be meaningful and not cosmetic to maintain the repulsive past.
Mr. Polycarp Onwubiko is an author and public affairs analyst, [email protected], Awka Anambra state.