Dr. Ibe Kachikwu’s “Leaked Letter” to The President And its Subtle Meanings.

But now, let us look at things the letter showed us without twisting and misapplying words.

First, there is definitely no love lost between Dr. Kachikwu and the NNPC Managing Director, Dr. Baru, ever since the previous year that saw Kachikwu withdrawn from occupying the position of both Managing Director of NNPC and Minister of State Petroleum Affairs (Which he still serves as). Stories came to light revealing Baru’s involvement in the dethronement and it is rather suspicious that he was the one chosen to replace the Minister.

In the letter that was addressed to Buhari in what the Director of Press in the Ministry of Petroleum, Mr. Idiang Alibi, claimed was supposed to be a “confidential” correspondence, the Minister opened by giving his reason for writing which is because he has been refused access to a one-on-one with M Buhari n several occasions. The main accusations in the letter directed at Baru are summed up in two words: Insubordination and authorization of contracts without the right procedures.

He wrote that many of the changes made within the structure of the NNPC was not passed to and by him for even the sake of dialogue and he got to know of them only via the media which is not supposed to be so as Minister in charge of the running of petroleum activities in the country. Kachikwu also recounts many times he had taken the pains to set up meetings between himself and Baru only to be stood up or have a representative sent to him.

About the award of contracts, he accused Baru of not observing laid down guides that stipulate that in the awarding of contracts exceeding $20 million the contacts should be run through his office first before it is then passed on to the President himself who is also the Minister of Petroleum. Then he in the same line named contracts, that amounted to a whopping $24 billion, that were not run via the right channels:

$10 billion Crude term contracts

$5 billion direct sales direct purchase

$3 billion AKK pipeline contract

$3 billion financing allocation funding

$3-4 billion NPDC production service.

Then in subtle jabs at trying to put Buhari in a spot, he kept referring to the President as a man of transparency who will not be happy with such shady deals and even showing confidence in saying the President will not ‘knowingly’ endorse any of these deals without due protocol being observed.

Meanwhile, in his bid in trying to clear the air about accusations levelled at him about being anti-north and having dealings with militants, he may have shown that he could have hoped the letter will be leaked to the public. He claimed to have been raised in the North and he is de-tribalized and believes capable hands can be found all over the country and he chooses the best not out of sentiment. He made it known also that he only had direct deals (sanctioned by the FG) with the militants when their actions were affecting the generation of oil that dropped to 1 million barrel per day from 2.2 million barrels per day.

It is another can of worms and it will surely smell as we anticipate the opponent’s next move.