Yemisi Izuora
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), has commended the Management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for sustaining the periodic publication of the corporation’s financial and operations reports in major national newspapers, across online news portals and social media handles.
Speaking at a two-day transformational leadership awards/workshop organized by the PENGASSAN NNPC Group Executive Council (GEC), in Abuja, Comrade Francis Olabode Johnson, President of the senior oil workers union, said the initiative had pushed the boundaries of transparency and accountability in the Petroleum Industry to a new level.
He stated that the move had enabled stakeholders across the board to maintain a steady tab on the inflows and outflows in the Petroleum Sector which has remained the largest source of revenue to the federation.
Comrade Johnson assured of the support of the association to the ongoing reforms in the corporation under the watch of Dr. Maikanti Baru as Group Managing Director, noting that his stewardship has set the NNPC, and by extension, the Oil and Gas Industry on the path of irreversible progress.
‘’Transformational leadership, as we all may be aware, is one in which leaders mobilize and inspires his team to share in the vision he creates about the organization’s ultimate objective to bring about the necessary change,’’ he said.
He added that the leadership style served to motivate, boost morale and enhance job performance of followers which includes management team and employees.
The PENGASSAN President listed some of the laudable achievements recorded thus far by the NNPC GMD to include: exit of the Joint Venture Cash Call burden through a new funding arrangement with oil majors, sustained crude oil production capacity, review of weak contractual agreements while renegotiating other upstream contracts, stabilizing the downstream sub-sector operations by ensuring sufficient products availability nationwide, as well as development of key gas assets for both domestic and export operations.
Other achievements he stated include: significant debt recovery drive from oil traders, boosting the corporation’s commitment to the frontier exploration, recent signing of the NLNG Train-7 Front End Engineering Design (FEED) contract, among others.
Commending the leadership of PENGASSAN both at the national and NNPC in-house levels, Dr. Baru thanked the group for the unflinching support for the transformation efforts through constructive engagement with management, noting that the union was on the right track.
He said the award would go a long way in furthering management’s resolve to drive the ongoing transformation exercise to the end as the Industry gears up to operate in an era post the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill.
Earlier, Dr. Brown Ogbeifun, former PENGSSAN President, who was the guest speaker at the workshop, challenged key players in the nation’s energy sector to embrace effective succession plan as a way of ensuring the growth and sustenance of the industry.
The highpoint of the event was the conferment of the PENGASSAN Transformational Leadership Award on Dr. Baru for his unique leadership approach. Also conferred with the award was Alhaji Isiaka AbdulRazaq, Chief Financial Officer of the NNPC, alongside Mallam Isa Inuwa, Chief Operating Officer, Corporate Services.