Chief Festus Remilekun Ayodele Marinho, Knight of St. Sylvester, the Esere of Uvwie, the Aro Olofin of Ijebu-Ife, Fellow of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society of Nigeria, is the retired pioneer and unprecedented two times Managing (now Group Managing) Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from 1977 to 1980 and then 1984 to 1985, was born on the 30th December 1934 in Ijebu-Ode.
Chief Marinho grew up, partly in the “Brazilian Quarters” of Lagos Island and attended St. Gregory”s College Obalende, Lagos. He matriculated into the then University College, Ibadan in 1956, became a ’College Scholar’ in 1957 and graduated BSc Special Honours in Physics in 1960. He joined the Public Service as the nation’s second Oil Technologist-in- Training, ever, and proceeded immediately to the Imperial College, London for post-graduate studies in Petroleum Reservoir Engineering from 1960-61. Thereafter, he undertook various practical attachments with International Petroleum and Service Companies as well as in established and reputed Oil Conservation Boards all over the world. Throughout his career, he undertook further training at various Technology and Management Institutions. He visited more than 35 countries in all the continents, attending conferences, seminars, OPEC meetings and other official assignments.
His public service story started fifty years ago, in June 1960 (just before Nigeria’s Independence) at the age of 25. He was one of the three graduates in the five-man team that started the then Hydrocarbon Unit in the Ministry of Mines and Lagos Affairs. Chief F.R.A. Marinho rose rapidly to become, in 1971, the first Deputy Director of Nigeria’s just maturing Ministry of Petroleum Resources, and then the first and only counterpart Director of Petroleum Resources, ever, from 1975-77. He led the technical team that started up the Nigerian National Oil Corporation (the precursor of the NNPC) as its first Manager-in-Charge from 1973-75. He was appointed the Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation at its inauguration on April 1st 1977.
He had been at the vanguard of the oil industry’s development and growth in Nigeria from its earliest dawn and effectively focused the NNPC as an instrument for the achievement of Government policies. He spear-headed the drafting of Nigeria’s most important Petroleum Laws and Regulations that have existed without major amendments for more than four decades; managed the planning and construction of three refineries within a decade; the construction of an extensive network of products and crude pipelines and petroleum storage depots countrywide within the same time frame; he broke the monopoly of the major multinational products’ marketers in the domestic products’ market by throwing the field open to independent indigenous marketers’; drove Nigeria’s aspirations for Nigerianisation, domestication of technical expertise; his relentless effort to commercial our natural gas resulted in the construction of base-load pipelines to the west and north of Nigeria and set the foundation for the now thriving Natural gas, liquids and liquefied, middle stream activities. He contributed significantly to the nation’s interaction with OPEC and to the insurance of Nigeria’s continued relevance, nationally and internationally.
His activities were briefly interrupted by the ‘N2.8billion ‘Oil-gate saga’, with his redeployment and subsequently re-instated as a second time MD of the NNPC, after the ‘hue and cry’ had been established to be a ‘hoax’ by the Justice Irikefe Judicial Tribunal of Inquiry.
Post NNPC, Chief Marinho has played further background roles in the Oil Industry, including serving as Alternate Chairman of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited and the Bonny Gas Transport Company Ltd. He was one time director of Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Agip Natural Energy Resources Co and currently a Director of NLPC Pension Fund Administrator
He is the recipient of many religious, traditional and professional awards including a Papal Knighthood, medals and recognition by, among others, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, the Petroleum Training Institute, Warri and the Nigerian Gas Association. He was the 1985 University of Ibadan Alumni Lecturer.
He is a committed Catholic and was and still belongs to many societies and organisations in the church. He is married to Yeye Aro Olofin Yetunde Oreoluwa Marinho and they have five children and ten grandchildren.
"Nigeria's Petroleum Industry: A Maverick Pioneer", a book on the Nigerian Petroleum Industry authored by Chief Festus Marinho.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
The Nigerian Petroleum Industry: A Maverick Pioneer
On May 21, 2010, friends, well wishers and relations of Chief Festus Ayodele Remilekun Marinho will gather at the Institute of International Affairs on Kofo Abayomi Street, in Lagos for the formal presentation and launch of his book: The Nigerian Petroleum Industry: A Maverick Pioneer.
An explosive and brutally frank book, it pulls no punches in dealing with the dark moments and the acts of commission and omission by major players in the formative years of the Nigerian petroleum industry. His story has been told from the vantage position of one who passed from the very beginning, through every stage of the evolution of the public service sector of the industry in Nigeria as well as the dramatic changes in the international industry, which was triggered by the coming into the limelight of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries, OPEC.
This masterfully written book not only chronicles the life and times of Chief Marinho and his distinguished contribution to the development of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, in a way it also tells the story of Nigeria: a Nigeria, in which greed and the personal ambition of public officers blatantly interferes with policy execution; a Nigeria in which political interference stunt the growth of institutions and destroys promising careers.
We learn from Marinho’s recollections that although many might sell their souls to the devil, men and women of integrity still abound in Nigeria. The book brims with insight and passion reflected in the author’s soulful expressions such as, “A nation without authentic history is a nation lost in transit” and “As a people we did not have a written history. We therefore seem to have a short memory. What we see now is what we value”.
He recalls hurdles placed in the way of the NNPC and its precursor, the Nigerian National Oil Corporation, (NNOC), right from their inception, by top level government functionaries out to further their own personal agenda. He claims categorically that “The board and management of the NNPC, as was its precursor, were undoubtedly fettered. Their commercial and other investment judgements were subject to the final decisions of those who were very remote from their activities and who invariably had only a glancing familiarity with the matters upon which they were to take final decisions. “Until I left the service, no one had been willing to consider the basic necessity of capitalising NNPC. The corporation was the goose that laid the golden egg but it had come to be perceived more as a cash cow rather than as a commercial enterprise. No government was prepared to let it slip out of its grip”.
Marinho argues in his book that “those who judge an organisation purely on the basis of its presumed capital assets and other perceived technical and economic configuration, without considering the limits of its freedom to exercise its mandate and employ resources judiciously, are, at best being mischievous and at worst totally ignorant of the basic economic and commercial imperatives for success in such complex enterprises”.
As we go through the book, Marinho’s reputation as a person of integrity, who could be resolute about his position, once he was convinced that he was on the right path, stands out. His commitment to transparency and accountability, as evident in the book is stuff that legends are made of. It was this streak in him that led the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives in the Second Republic to ask, at a public hearing on the so-called $2.8 billion missing oil revenue, “Is the NNPC your father’s business?
Self-assured, thoroughly professional and independent-minded, Marinho was prone to ruffling feathers. He details his encounters with one of the super Permanent Secretaries of the era, at a period when government began to be more effectively involved in the petroleum sector. Marinho had resisted this boss’ attempts to acquire undue influence over the sector. His entanglement with another one-time Minister of Petroleum Resources is also documented.
On the eve of his retirement from the public service, a Secretary to the Federal Ministry Government had stated, in commiseration, that it seemed he had “too many battle scars”.
His contributions to the drafting of legislation and the formulation of policy for the industry were the most significant aspects of his pioneering work. He pursued Nigerianisation in the industry with a passion and left an enduring legacy in the crop of industry professionals he nurtured. Names such as, Thomas John, Jackson Gaius Obaseki, Funsho Kupolokun, Mike Olorunfemi, Mac Ofurhie, Diran Fawibe, Godwin Omene, Femi Lalude, Egbert Imomoh, pop up in these accounts.
The Chief documents many of his ‘cat and mouse’ encounters with the major multinational petroleum companies (member of the ‘seven sisters’ cartel) in his time, and even goes on to attempt to answer the rhetorical question: “Do oil companies cheat?” He covers a lot of grounds on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its manoeuvrings and intrigues.
The book graphically captures non-petroleum industry issues as Marinho’s childhood days in Lagos, campus life at the University of Ibadan in his time and snippets of life in the old Brazilian Quarters of Lagos as well as some aspects of Yoruba culture and philosophy. His extensive analyses of political and other national issues are crisp and incisive.
The book includes a very extensive and convincing coverage of the unfortunate $2.8 billion oil-gate hoax, as concluded by the Justice Irikefe Tribunal of Inquiry.
The content, language, arrangement, style and size (CLASS) of this book makes it compelling reading, not only for oil and gas industry professionals but for everybody interested in restoring Nigeria to the path of honour.
An explosive and brutally frank book, it pulls no punches in dealing with the dark moments and the acts of commission and omission by major players in the formative years of the Nigerian petroleum industry. His story has been told from the vantage position of one who passed from the very beginning, through every stage of the evolution of the public service sector of the industry in Nigeria as well as the dramatic changes in the international industry, which was triggered by the coming into the limelight of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries, OPEC.
This masterfully written book not only chronicles the life and times of Chief Marinho and his distinguished contribution to the development of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, in a way it also tells the story of Nigeria: a Nigeria, in which greed and the personal ambition of public officers blatantly interferes with policy execution; a Nigeria in which political interference stunt the growth of institutions and destroys promising careers.
We learn from Marinho’s recollections that although many might sell their souls to the devil, men and women of integrity still abound in Nigeria. The book brims with insight and passion reflected in the author’s soulful expressions such as, “A nation without authentic history is a nation lost in transit” and “As a people we did not have a written history. We therefore seem to have a short memory. What we see now is what we value”.
He recalls hurdles placed in the way of the NNPC and its precursor, the Nigerian National Oil Corporation, (NNOC), right from their inception, by top level government functionaries out to further their own personal agenda. He claims categorically that “The board and management of the NNPC, as was its precursor, were undoubtedly fettered. Their commercial and other investment judgements were subject to the final decisions of those who were very remote from their activities and who invariably had only a glancing familiarity with the matters upon which they were to take final decisions. “Until I left the service, no one had been willing to consider the basic necessity of capitalising NNPC. The corporation was the goose that laid the golden egg but it had come to be perceived more as a cash cow rather than as a commercial enterprise. No government was prepared to let it slip out of its grip”.
Marinho argues in his book that “those who judge an organisation purely on the basis of its presumed capital assets and other perceived technical and economic configuration, without considering the limits of its freedom to exercise its mandate and employ resources judiciously, are, at best being mischievous and at worst totally ignorant of the basic economic and commercial imperatives for success in such complex enterprises”.
As we go through the book, Marinho’s reputation as a person of integrity, who could be resolute about his position, once he was convinced that he was on the right path, stands out. His commitment to transparency and accountability, as evident in the book is stuff that legends are made of. It was this streak in him that led the Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives in the Second Republic to ask, at a public hearing on the so-called $2.8 billion missing oil revenue, “Is the NNPC your father’s business?
Self-assured, thoroughly professional and independent-minded, Marinho was prone to ruffling feathers. He details his encounters with one of the super Permanent Secretaries of the era, at a period when government began to be more effectively involved in the petroleum sector. Marinho had resisted this boss’ attempts to acquire undue influence over the sector. His entanglement with another one-time Minister of Petroleum Resources is also documented.
On the eve of his retirement from the public service, a Secretary to the Federal Ministry Government had stated, in commiseration, that it seemed he had “too many battle scars”.
His contributions to the drafting of legislation and the formulation of policy for the industry were the most significant aspects of his pioneering work. He pursued Nigerianisation in the industry with a passion and left an enduring legacy in the crop of industry professionals he nurtured. Names such as, Thomas John, Jackson Gaius Obaseki, Funsho Kupolokun, Mike Olorunfemi, Mac Ofurhie, Diran Fawibe, Godwin Omene, Femi Lalude, Egbert Imomoh, pop up in these accounts.
The Chief documents many of his ‘cat and mouse’ encounters with the major multinational petroleum companies (member of the ‘seven sisters’ cartel) in his time, and even goes on to attempt to answer the rhetorical question: “Do oil companies cheat?” He covers a lot of grounds on the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its manoeuvrings and intrigues.
The book graphically captures non-petroleum industry issues as Marinho’s childhood days in Lagos, campus life at the University of Ibadan in his time and snippets of life in the old Brazilian Quarters of Lagos as well as some aspects of Yoruba culture and philosophy. His extensive analyses of political and other national issues are crisp and incisive.
The book includes a very extensive and convincing coverage of the unfortunate $2.8 billion oil-gate hoax, as concluded by the Justice Irikefe Tribunal of Inquiry.
The content, language, arrangement, style and size (CLASS) of this book makes it compelling reading, not only for oil and gas industry professionals but for everybody interested in restoring Nigeria to the path of honour.
THE N2.8 BILLION ALLEGED MISSING OIL MONEY STORY
I have anticipated that in the absence of advance copies of the book about to be launched, the Press will be otherwise inquisitive about the above subject. I have therefore prepared a painstaking brief.
In my book, I devoted two chapters, Chapters 27 and 28, covering some 45 pages (more than 7% of the volume), with extensive extracts from the Report on the Findings and Conclusions of the Justice Irikefe Tribunal of Inquiry on the matter. Its transactions were contained in 13 volumes together with the volume on the Report to the Government.
The story which was triggered by an Auditor’s Management Report, (satisfactorily resolved), that was mischievously leaked to the press was first published by the Punch newspaper, which soon published an ‘’unprompted and unsolicited apology’’ on 27th 0f September, 1979 (see page 520).
I have extracted the following, in extenso, from the report of the Tribunal.
‘’In November 1979, the issue was raised by Senator Barkin Zuwo in words which revived the speculations that money might be missing......
Senator Saraki reported that he had received anonymous telephone calls and letters from people who claimed that the money was in fact missing and that it had been paid into some private account..... He later spoke briefly to a television interviewer, Miss Vera Ifodu, in exactly the same terms as he had spoken in the Senate. The video tape of the interview was played back at the Tribunal. From the summary reports by the news media and their commentaries on the unambiguous speeches made in the National Assembly and the television interviews ... the rumour was distorted out of proportion and a completely different twist was given to an otherwise clear and innocent situation. In reporting what Senator Saraki said,.... the introduction to the story by the Managing Director of the NTA had carried the fantasy many stages further, (Mr Augie NTA MD admitted to the Tribunal that) ... ‘’it is not the best way to deal with the matter as it was stated, a totally different story of what Senator Saraki actually said to Miss Ifodu.’’...
General evidence about the alleged N2.8billion which has been clearly demonstrated to have its origin in the fertile imaginations or the deliberate distortions of mischievous journalists nurtured by assembly men and blown into a monster by politicians and columnists with axes to grind ....(p526)
Imagination had run riot, and everyone, newspaper editors and columnists, students, unwary legislators, workers, university dons and in fact, the whole country was caught in the vicious rumour, and something that started as a mischievous report assumed monstrous proportions.
All those who shouted the loudest on pages of the newspapers and elsewhere denied of being possessed of any information and one of them, in particular, Mr Longe, (Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly) asserted on oath that his threat to reveal the name of the owner of the foreign account into which the account was paid, if the President failed to do so, was a matter of politics and that in politics anything goes and there were no holds barred. ....How many an innocent man has lost his life as a result of a hue and cry carelessly raised as a lark, by someone who immediately thereafter melts into the crowd and then into oblivion.....
While the possibilities of the loss of such a colossal sum should be cause for indignation, there were those who, in shouting for action against imagined culprits had ideas, other than the stability of the nation, in their minds. It was Dr Paul Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, who said that a small lie does not excite the human mind, but that a sufficiently big lie, if repeated often enough would soon put on the garb of truth. ... Prompt action by government in publishing details of the NNPC which existed then as they still are today would have quickly diffused the situation. The only antidote to falsehood is truth, and must be brought out without delay. ... (525)
It seems that this matter of the N2.8billion has turned into a storm in a tea cup and the greatest Hoax of all time. (P 20)
One of the issues frequently emphasized in the rumours that were peddled before the Tribunal was set up was the claim by some persons that the sum of N2.8billion was paid into a private account in England and later transferred to the Midland Bank in London. ....Mr Robert Hubbard, the Manager of the Midland Bank also testified that at no time was the sum of N2.8billion paid into the Midland Account of NNPC in London and that the cumulative lodgement in the current account did not exceed 200,000 pounds sterling. He stated that a deposit of 100million pounds sterling would have a disastrous effect on any bank because such a bank had to pay interest. A deposit of N2.8 billion would therefore have a serious impact on the money market.’’ (P525)
‘’Summary of Findings and Recommendations of the Irikefe Tribunal of Inquiry
Findings
1. All crude oil sold by the NNPC and the payments thereof are in all respects in accordance with the terms of their contracts.
2. No proceeds of any such sales were missing or not properly accounted for.
3. No person has been found guilty of any fraud or wrong doing with regard to the handling or accounting for the proceeds of sales of crude oil.
4. No proceeds of sales of crude was ever paid into NNPC’s account with Midland Bank International Division, London, the only foreign account it was permitted to to maintain outside Nigeria and th only one it maintains as far as the Tribunal could determine.
................... ‘’ (526)
‘’NNPC’s Management
The Tribunal is therefore of the view that if the suspension of the Chief Executive of NNPC and its Board members was a result of the allegations surrounding the loss of NNPC’s N2.8billion such suspension would not have been fair and just as there has been no case of fraud or wrong doings on their part.’’
My last word on the matter is that this is now a dead issue that has continued, however, to titillate the imagination of the media. An attempt to revive it in 1988 was check-mated by me when I caused the Tribune to place a rejoinder to a so-called re-discovery of the matter of the payment of the NNPC oil money into an account other than the NNPC’s. The chastened Editor had had to write the following Note:
‘’ It has been established no N2.8billion was missing. The unresolved issue that of lodging which has to be resolved. ‘’ (P559)
I then entered into some exchanges with General Obasanjo and Chief Allison Ayida which left me satisfied that the matter had been finally laid to rest.
As a matter of interest, I won a case of libel in respect of this subject that I brought against Tribune, ably represented by the late Chief Bola Ige. An appeal by the defendant has, however, been abandoned at the Court of Appeal.
Finally my conclusion on this question is as I have stated in the following passage of the book:
‘’.... all of these are the last unrehearsed words on the subject of the so-called N2.8billion ‘Oilgate’ affair by the three persons living or dead, anywhere in the world, who should be able to know anything (if there is anything to know) about it. They speak the truth. ‘Ex nihilo nihil fit’, (out of nothing can come’. Now that the last ounce of believability has been squeezed out of that ‘phantom of the press’, it must be high time to allow the soulless monster to rest in pieces’’ (See page 557)
In my book, I devoted two chapters, Chapters 27 and 28, covering some 45 pages (more than 7% of the volume), with extensive extracts from the Report on the Findings and Conclusions of the Justice Irikefe Tribunal of Inquiry on the matter. Its transactions were contained in 13 volumes together with the volume on the Report to the Government.
The story which was triggered by an Auditor’s Management Report, (satisfactorily resolved), that was mischievously leaked to the press was first published by the Punch newspaper, which soon published an ‘’unprompted and unsolicited apology’’ on 27th 0f September, 1979 (see page 520).
I have extracted the following, in extenso, from the report of the Tribunal.
‘’In November 1979, the issue was raised by Senator Barkin Zuwo in words which revived the speculations that money might be missing......
Senator Saraki reported that he had received anonymous telephone calls and letters from people who claimed that the money was in fact missing and that it had been paid into some private account..... He later spoke briefly to a television interviewer, Miss Vera Ifodu, in exactly the same terms as he had spoken in the Senate. The video tape of the interview was played back at the Tribunal. From the summary reports by the news media and their commentaries on the unambiguous speeches made in the National Assembly and the television interviews ... the rumour was distorted out of proportion and a completely different twist was given to an otherwise clear and innocent situation. In reporting what Senator Saraki said,.... the introduction to the story by the Managing Director of the NTA had carried the fantasy many stages further, (Mr Augie NTA MD admitted to the Tribunal that) ... ‘’it is not the best way to deal with the matter as it was stated, a totally different story of what Senator Saraki actually said to Miss Ifodu.’’...
General evidence about the alleged N2.8billion which has been clearly demonstrated to have its origin in the fertile imaginations or the deliberate distortions of mischievous journalists nurtured by assembly men and blown into a monster by politicians and columnists with axes to grind ....(p526)
Imagination had run riot, and everyone, newspaper editors and columnists, students, unwary legislators, workers, university dons and in fact, the whole country was caught in the vicious rumour, and something that started as a mischievous report assumed monstrous proportions.
All those who shouted the loudest on pages of the newspapers and elsewhere denied of being possessed of any information and one of them, in particular, Mr Longe, (Deputy Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly) asserted on oath that his threat to reveal the name of the owner of the foreign account into which the account was paid, if the President failed to do so, was a matter of politics and that in politics anything goes and there were no holds barred. ....How many an innocent man has lost his life as a result of a hue and cry carelessly raised as a lark, by someone who immediately thereafter melts into the crowd and then into oblivion.....
While the possibilities of the loss of such a colossal sum should be cause for indignation, there were those who, in shouting for action against imagined culprits had ideas, other than the stability of the nation, in their minds. It was Dr Paul Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, who said that a small lie does not excite the human mind, but that a sufficiently big lie, if repeated often enough would soon put on the garb of truth. ... Prompt action by government in publishing details of the NNPC which existed then as they still are today would have quickly diffused the situation. The only antidote to falsehood is truth, and must be brought out without delay. ... (525)
It seems that this matter of the N2.8billion has turned into a storm in a tea cup and the greatest Hoax of all time. (P 20)
One of the issues frequently emphasized in the rumours that were peddled before the Tribunal was set up was the claim by some persons that the sum of N2.8billion was paid into a private account in England and later transferred to the Midland Bank in London. ....Mr Robert Hubbard, the Manager of the Midland Bank also testified that at no time was the sum of N2.8billion paid into the Midland Account of NNPC in London and that the cumulative lodgement in the current account did not exceed 200,000 pounds sterling. He stated that a deposit of 100million pounds sterling would have a disastrous effect on any bank because such a bank had to pay interest. A deposit of N2.8 billion would therefore have a serious impact on the money market.’’ (P525)
‘’Summary of Findings and Recommendations of the Irikefe Tribunal of Inquiry
Findings
1. All crude oil sold by the NNPC and the payments thereof are in all respects in accordance with the terms of their contracts.
2. No proceeds of any such sales were missing or not properly accounted for.
3. No person has been found guilty of any fraud or wrong doing with regard to the handling or accounting for the proceeds of sales of crude oil.
4. No proceeds of sales of crude was ever paid into NNPC’s account with Midland Bank International Division, London, the only foreign account it was permitted to to maintain outside Nigeria and th only one it maintains as far as the Tribunal could determine.
................... ‘’ (526)
‘’NNPC’s Management
The Tribunal is therefore of the view that if the suspension of the Chief Executive of NNPC and its Board members was a result of the allegations surrounding the loss of NNPC’s N2.8billion such suspension would not have been fair and just as there has been no case of fraud or wrong doings on their part.’’
My last word on the matter is that this is now a dead issue that has continued, however, to titillate the imagination of the media. An attempt to revive it in 1988 was check-mated by me when I caused the Tribune to place a rejoinder to a so-called re-discovery of the matter of the payment of the NNPC oil money into an account other than the NNPC’s. The chastened Editor had had to write the following Note:
‘’ It has been established no N2.8billion was missing. The unresolved issue that of lodging which has to be resolved. ‘’ (P559)
I then entered into some exchanges with General Obasanjo and Chief Allison Ayida which left me satisfied that the matter had been finally laid to rest.
As a matter of interest, I won a case of libel in respect of this subject that I brought against Tribune, ably represented by the late Chief Bola Ige. An appeal by the defendant has, however, been abandoned at the Court of Appeal.
Finally my conclusion on this question is as I have stated in the following passage of the book:
‘’.... all of these are the last unrehearsed words on the subject of the so-called N2.8billion ‘Oilgate’ affair by the three persons living or dead, anywhere in the world, who should be able to know anything (if there is anything to know) about it. They speak the truth. ‘Ex nihilo nihil fit’, (out of nothing can come’. Now that the last ounce of believability has been squeezed out of that ‘phantom of the press’, it must be high time to allow the soulless monster to rest in pieces’’ (See page 557)
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