Kachikwu/Baru face-off: Conflict to end soon as Buhari insists that sanity should prevail

When the bell that ushered in the third quarter (July – September) of 2017 started to toll, there were not very obvious indications that the relationship between Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, and Mr. Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, was heading for the rocks, despite speculations at the NNPC towers where both oil chiefs hold forte, for some reasons.

First, in the public, both ‘jolly-good-fellows’ could still smile and shake hands.

Second, Baru was also seen, representing Kachikwu in some official engagements, which suggested cooperation and commitment to the development of the nation’s oil and gas industry in particular, and the economy in general.

President Buhari

But that was not to be. In a leaked memo to President Muhammadu Buhari, Kachikwu expressed dissatisfaction with questionable practices in the state-owned NNPC. Specifically, the Minister of State disclosed that five major contracts were awarded without the approval of the NNPC board which has Kachikwu as chairman.