The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Maikanti Baru, says the corporation is committed to reviving the nation’s economy.

Baru gave the commitment when the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Bayo Onanuga, visited him at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Thursday.

He said that collaboration between NAN and NNPC could stimulate the economy with the former’s substantial reach and mobility across the 36 states of the federation and beyond.

“We in the NNPC are committed to seeing that the economy comes back fully and that jobs are created.

“We are committed to seeing that the economy comes out of recession and you are definitely a partner in this mission that we set out to do for the nation,’’ he said.

According to Baru, through the daily reportage of the NNPC, NAN remains a leading voice in the fight against unwholesome activities, crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and sabotage of oil and gas installations.

He pledged to support the resuscitation of the Niger Delta bureau of the agency saying “we will support the bureau to see it comes back active and see to the purpose it was set up for.

“NNPC will use the bureau in grassroots news and information gathering, especially in the area of pipeline vandalism and with the difficulties we have with the transporters moving petroleum products.

“The pipelines have to be back, have to be running so that should the transporters, for any reason, not able to move these products, we can at least move them to various points across the country’’.

Baru said since taking over the mantle of leadership of the corporation, he had operated a FACTI-based approach to solving issues, explaining that FACTI meant Focused, Accountable, Competitive and Transparent Organization conducting business with Integrity.

He attributed the queue-free yuletide in 2016 to collaborative effort of various distributors and NNPC staff members, who put in long office hours and sleepless nights.

Earlier, Onanuga had commended Baru saying “I am impressed with what the GMD has done in his short time in office.

“For instance, for the first time in the history of our country, we had a December free of fuel shortage.

“In the media, we played with it; we had two photos, one of December, 2015 with people agonizingly queuing for petrol, and another of December, 2016, with no queue.

“In fact, there were just one or two cars in the stations.That is a very commendable achievement; I don’t know how you achieved it.

“If you used a magic wand, I hope that magic wand can be applied year-in-year-out so our country can be saved of petrol agony as we have had in the past,’’ he said.

Onanuga intimated Baru of NAN’s efficient services, including the sms and PR-Wire platforms, adding that his aim was that the agency fitted into the mould of other news agencies across the world.

“NAN and NNPC should work together for the benefit of the country. As an agency, there’s so much we can offer to our sister agency.

“We are also going to set up an energy desk.

“The energy industry is one of the most important in our country and as a news agency we must pay attention to energy news and not to get such news breaking on foreign media outlets like Reuters or AFP.

“We are not happy about that. We are going to work together on this and we hope we can change this in due course,’’ Onanuga said.

Source: NAN