Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s outgoing group managing director, Maikanti Baru, says he is prepared and willing to do more if the chance to serve the nation is offered.
Mr Baru said this while talking in Lagos on Thursday to reporters on the sidelines of the 2019 Annual Lecture, Life Achievement Awards and New Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.
Service to Nigeria, he says, is an appeal to everyone that needs to be followed.
Speaking of his post-retirement plans as he retires on July 7, Mr Baru said that he would always be willing to serve Nigeria again if that chance arose.
“Service to Nigeria is everybody’s call. Every Nigerian should be willing to serve the country when called upon to do so.
“The system that has been put in place is for a public servant to retire when he is 60 years or after 35 years in service.
“However, if it is the prerogative of President Muhammadu Buhari to invite you to do more and of course you should look at it and you should do more.
“The President graciously accepted my statutory retirement but if he says I should come and do more, I’m willing to serve,” he said.
Mr Baru would retire from active service on July 7, clocking 60 years.
He was born on July 7, 1959 and grew up in Jos, Plateau State, from Jama’are in Bauchi State, Northeast Nigeria.
He is a Nigerian Academy of Engineering Fellow and a Nigerian Engineering Society Fellow.
He attended the University of Ahmadu Bello, Zaria, where he was awarded a first-class Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical). He holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering as well.
He was the Special Adviser (Upstream) to the Ministry of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, until his appointment as the NNPC boss.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed the appointment of the company’s new Group Managing Director, NNPC’s Crude Oil Marketing Division (COMD), Mele Kolo Kyari.
Mr Kyari from Borno State comes to the job as the NNPC’s 19th GMD with a strong profile of qualifications for professional and service.
A geologist, Mr Kyari was regarded as a crude oil marketer with outfield pedigree in petroleum economy and oil and gas trading in the oil industry.
His duty journey went through the entire value chain of the petroleum industry with over 27 years of experience in the oil and gas industry.
