Leave, when the ovation is loudest, is a popular maxim across strata of life and generations. Farouk did not leave when he should have done, and he is paying the price.
Farouk’s path and mine crossed precisely 15 years’ ago. 2010 was the year NNPC offices – be it at DPR, PPPRA or PPMC – became my second home. The crescendo came in 2017 when I flew on aircraft 48 times in one calendar year – mainly between Lagos and Abuja, albeit with a couple of international trips in between. The destination in Abuja was almost always NNPC offices and towers. My mission? To meet with Farouk Ahmed or whoever was occupying the privileged seat at the particular point in time. I am such an obsessed record keeper that I actually have a record of all the dates I flew, along with the reasons for flying. As the Englishman would say, risking life and limbs to find daily bread.
Allow me to digress: Five years’ ago, on this page, I wrote about the 18 of us who made first class honours in different courses across UNILAG (including the College of Medicine) in 1986. This was as UNILAG finally graduated a set who had been made to wait nearly two years to finally have their ceremony, with a few of those young first-class graduates being close to me. Did anyone reading this read that article? My class and course mates were astounded about the degree of accuracy, which included details of events at our matriculation ceremonies. This is how much I keep records.
Back to Farouk Ahmed. Hajji Farouk – as I call him – finally retired. Mind you, he had joined the corporation as a young graduate right after his NYSC. Everyone in the downstream sector of the oil & gas business heard about his retirement. It was impossible not to. He was such a big mover and shaker. Today, no single drop of petrol and other white goods can come into Nigeria without Farouk Ahmed’s signature.
Maikanti Baru became GMD of NNPC in July 2016. Fast forward to January 5, 2017, a meeting of key players in the downstream sector was called. Prince Dapo Abiodun, owner of the Heyden chain, chairman of DAPPMAN and now governor of Ogun State, led our delegation. Mine is one of those faces His Excellency can never forget. Gosh! The number of battles we fought together – all the way to the presidency. As usual, I represented my company at this meeting.
To my surprise, Hajji Farouk was at this meeting. I know for sure that he was there because I greeted and talked to him. And there’s a simple reason I have not forgotten the date – it was my birthday. So, how come a retired Farouk Ahmed was attending our meeting? He had been recalled by the then MD as a technical advisor. He was to remain in the system for another long spell. The flight to that meeting on January 5 was the first of 48 flights that I was to take that year. There’s a good chance that I flew even more times in 2016. The simple reason that I started to take notes of my flight in 2017 was that I flew so many times in 2016, I began to wonder how many times I was on an aircraft. This curiosity was what made me start taking notes of my trips and the reasons for each.
A day before its crash, I was on the Dana Air that crashed on June 3, 2012, killing all 153 people on board. I was on the exact schedule from Abuja back to Lagos. Mr Tony Adejugbe, CEO of Tonique Oil, led our delegation then and was most likely on the same flight. I remember that we were together in the waiting area as we awaited the announcements of our flight(s). I gave the Jumu’ah Khutbah at Lekki Central Mosque the following Friday, and anyone who attended that Jumu’ah and is reading this would remember as I narrated the experience. My friends know me to joke that my job in oil & gas (glamorous though it seemed – and it was glamorous) was one of the most dangerous jobs in Nigeria. I have experienced all sorts of air mishaps and was on the tarmac awaiting take-off when the door of another aircraft yanked off as it landed in Abuja.
Back to Farouk Ahmed. By some hook or crook (and this is a mere English saying, not an indictment), Hajji Farouk found a way to remain in the system so much so that when NNPC became NNPCL and new heads of the now semi-privatised agencies were announced in 2021, his name came up again as the CEO of the now combined DPR and PPPRA. His old office as executive secretary of PPPRA became his new office as the chief regulator of the midstream and downstream sectors of our business. The Authority, we call the new agency.
My immediate reaction upon the announcement of his name then was “Hajji Farouk again! How did he do it”? In my view, Farouk Ahmed stayed too long in the system (after formal retirement following a full career in the same place), and that, I think, is the price he is paying today. It is not my place to judge him as an individual, and I have not done so. But it is a terrible thing to have gory details of your children laid bare on pages of newspapers, television screens and social media. A little price for a life of privilege, some would call it, though. In truth, most Nigerians would rather be in Farouk’s position – EFCC or not.
As for me, I am enjoying my retirement. The Minbar is my office now. Long may it continue. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil ‘aalameen.
