Baru: A Reporter'S Nightmare

Since he was appointed Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on July 4, last year, Dr. Maikanti Baru has been a nightmare to reporters.

He neither grants interviews nor takes reporters’ questions at events or after delivering lectures – the few occassions when he meets face-to-face with reporters.
He also does not give his telephone number(s) to reporters.

A few months ago, the NNPC refuirbished tanks and he was in Lagos to inaugurate them.

On such an ordinarily happy occasion, when they thought he would be disposed to speaking, the reporters’ attempt to ask him some questions was rebuffed.

It is not unusual for security men to form a ring around the NNPC GMD immediately after finishing his lecture delivery and after an address to visitors at the NNPC headquarters in Abuja.

Baru rose through the ranks in the NNPC to become an Executive Director before his appointment as GMD to replace Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who blew the whistle on his activities with his August 30 letter to
President Muhammadu Buhari.
That was the situation at the time the minster’s letter found its way to the media on Tuesday.
Since that time, it has been virtually impossible to reach Baru, a PhD holder and First Class Mechanical Engineering graduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, to speak on the matter.