Rabiu Umar, the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency by President Tinubu to run the three-in-one agency effectively, efficiently and unblemishly in line with global best practices and as enshrined in the Petroleum Industry Act of 2021, is a “square peg in a square hole”. NMDPRA was birthed from the merger of three oil regulatory bodies, namely the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management Board and the Midstream Downstream Divisions of the Department of Petroleum Resources.
These are separate regulatory, supervisory and technical bodies from the unbundled Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, now housed together in one body, soul and brain. And when President Tinubu saw that the first two insider-CEOs were not properly driving petroleum administration, regulation and monitoring seamlessly, in tandem with the Renewed Hope Agenda of his administration, he decided to appoint an outsider ─ CEO to marshal the agency. That’s in the person of Rabiu Umar, a seasoned corporate executive whose three-decade record transcended oil, energy, production and commodity business administratively and technically.
Contrary to all that has been written highlighting the new CEO’s career in Ashaka Cement and Dangote, the man had previously had three jobs in two decades with big companies before later berthing at Ashaka and Dangote, respectively. Groomed and nurtured at the privatised Unipetrol Nigeria plc as a fresh accounting graduate from Bayero University, where he started as a Sales Rep, he transitioned at Privatisation with Unipetrol to Oando, where he rose through the ranks to become the Chief Operating Officer, and from there joined Lafarge as Energy & Strategy Director.
From Lafarge, he pitched his tent with Ashaka Cement, leaving as Managing Director to join Dangote as Group Sales & Marketing Director before resigning over a year ago to drive his own private commodity/ produce business, which gives him time for family and tennis games at Ikoyi Club and 1004 courts.
Aside from this piece showcasing the new CEO’s proven corporate track records outside of Ashaka and Dangote companies, it is also to espouse his leadership traits, which go a long way in helping to understand the connectivity in business and governance in tandem with PBAT’s Renewed Hope Agenda for all- round infrastructural development, in which the oil sector carries a humongous load that intertwines in political economy.
Thus, Rabiu Umar, who was scioned by an oil industry father, Alhaji Abdullahi Umar snr (retired General Manager, Admin & HR) at Total Oil plc, takes full charge of NMDPRA with the Senate’s approval of his appointment last week, a new era beckons in the Agency for all and sundry that is devoid of man-made volatility, meddlesomeness, corruption, accusations and lacklustre proactivity.
With formal and informal trainings at BUK, Harvard, Unipetrol, Oando, Lafarge, Ashaka and Dangote coupled with his own personal entrepreneurship which are real gamut of administrative and technical know-how in Oil, energy and manufacturing business where timeliness, proactiviness, competitiveness and quality control are templates for achievements, Mr. Rabiu Abdullahi Umar should know that he’s not just on the radar watch of President Tinubu but also of the corporate world being the first product of the private sector to head this sensitive intergovernmental Agency, especially now that other big and medium petroleum refineries have come up to compete with imported fuels, which are the engine room of most businesses.
Gbenga Gbadesire, a media and logistics entrepreneur, writes from Lagos.
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