•Govt, industries must partner with universities to fund research programmes
Dr Emmanuel Okoroafor, Executive Director, Hobark International Limited (an integrated oilfield services company), is an industry expert in Nigeria’s petroleum upstream sector.
Okoroafor, who has a doctorate in Materials Science from Université Denis Diderot in Paris, is a seasoned academic who has taught and conducted research at universities in the United Kingdom and France.
He recently spoke with journalists about issues that are germane to the growth of the petroleum industry in general, with emphasis on the pragmatic way to grow skills and competence locally to meet the manpower needs of the industry. He lamented that Nigerians do not have a progressive mindset, asserting that the nation’s major problem is its choice of leadership. CHRISTINE ONWUACHUMBA was there.
The upstream petroleum industry is transitioning from IOCs to independents. How do you think Nigeria should manage the challenges associated with the emerging crew change?
I think we have many suitably qualified Nigerians who have been trained and exposed to the global industry. Their experience and expertise will enable them to run the show if given the opportunity. Yes, it is true that some of the big companies like Shell, Exxon, Schlumberger, and Halliburton have, from time to time, brought Nigerians to run their operations in-country. However, these guys come with a background of opportunity, whereas there are people who do not have that background but are suitable for the job.
In Shell, for instance, a person in leadership will come with a background and mentality of corporate Shell. However, people often prefer someone from a local service company than the IOCs. This is because the training they get from these companies and the world they have travelled makes them deal with issues like businessmen. But under the clout of the IOCs, the system propels itself and you are only an administrator.
I believe that Nigeria is still good where we are now. The IOCs can go ahead to make their money. However, they can do that by getting Nigerians to take up the management of both IOCs and independent operators. That way, we can prepare for the inevitable crew change.
How do you think the industry and government can help the tertiary education curricula to enable Nigerian graduates to hit the ground running?
In my days, before you graduated from any technical field of study, you’d go on an industry placement that was made to form part of your citation before graduation. The host company had the responsibility to evaluate you, and if you were good, they would make you an offer upon graduation. So, apart from the training you got from the university, the industry placement provided you with the necessary tools. If you learn something today, it is for a task today; for tomorrow, you need to tool up. Therefore, for Nigerian graduates to hit the ground running, they must undergo industry placements because they need hands-on training. They need industry placements in companies or agencies. These companies or agencies will provide them the opportunity to participate in ongoing projects. By so doing, the students will gain the tools needed, both in practice and in communication.
So, in essence, in preparing them for direct entry into the industry, there are two ways to go about it. One, is to send them to some of the training bodies; either PTDF or PTI. The other way is to equip the universities, in such a way that an engineering student is involved in engineering projects within the university.
The theoretical studies in class will be put to work in real projects. Then, in their third year, they can go on industrial placements organised with the institutions. The companies they work with would write back to the universities, sharing details of the performance of the students. This is the way most present-day oil workers and executives got their jobs in those days.
The likes of Schlumberger, Shell and others go to the universities to interview students, offer them industrial placement and most were offered jobs at the end of their studies. We can make it happen again.”
Every industry is aligning with new global standards on governance processes, technological innovations, and environmental responsibility. What gaps can we fill locally to tame the mentality of going elsewhere to upscale?
That is a great question. The industry in Nigeria and the education institutions should work hand in hand, just as, the Robert Gordon University- Aberdeen, the Heriot Watt University-Edinburgh, and other institutions in the United Kingdom. What happens in these other countries is that the government and the industry work in collaboration with the universities, to fund research programmes that provide innovations and new solutions to industry operations. You do not see graduates from their universities going somewhere else to learn something about oil and gas because it is part of the programme. The same thing could happen here!
Universities like the University of Port Harcourt and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, have very good engineering programmes. But how many companies from the industries in the country give them the required collaboration? That is what is lacking!
Is there any role you think the regulatory bodies can play in harnessing internal resources and creating efficiencies that will solidify these OGTAN companies into Centres of Excellence for the industry?
Centres of excellence are good. But you do not form them outside existing structures.
Warwick University in the UK is a world centre of excellence for manufacturing which is funded by prominent organisations including Rolls Royce and the British Aerospace. It is the same thing with oil companies and institutions in the US.
However, in Nigeria, we like to create new units that are politicized and staffed with cronies, relatives, old boys and so on, to the extent that these institutions lose their primary focus.
We already have centres of excellence like PTDF and the one established by Hobark. Yes, Hobark in collaboration with Halliburton and the Akwa Ibom State Government, set up an Oil & Gas Training & Research Centre in Uyo. That cost us a lot of money. But it is not being used because the PTDF set up another one in Port Harcourt. In Nigeria, everything is duplicated. We must copy good things from others. My point here is that we should stop creating all these new things. For instance, it would be wrong to keep a centre of excellence for gas monetization inside NNPC. Keep it inside a university, in the industry hub, for it to be effective in delivering the national aspiration for the gas industry.
So, in my opinion, the most effective way to groom trainees for the petroleum industry is to use the universities. I cited the University of Warwick, as an example. The University of Cambridge also has many centres of excellence, same with Imperial College. The students passing though these centres are the masters of the future. Therefore, what we need is to do the right thing using existing structures.
There are ongoing debates about having a central regulator, having multiple local content units across all MDAs. How do we have a single local content regulator that works?
There is always the tendency of over-concentrating attention and burden on a system that has proved impactful. The NCDMB or its current Executive Secretary has proved efficient and effective in oil and gas. If we overburden him with other units from all the MDAs in the country, the agency would either be too powerful, distracted, or corrupted.
I think for now, to avoid such, we can retain what we have at the NCDMB, so that it will continue to set the standard for other sectors. The NCDMB has become a success. Other agencies and their local content models, be it cabotage or anything, could still be successes. But we must be careful how we bring them all together. The NCDMB will soon open industrial parks and of course, some people will expect free rent for a few years, and if care is not taken, they can take it for many years. However, this can also lead to an industrial innovation centre of excellence in Bayelsa State, where we have robust industry operations. The young generation of Nigerians, instead of going to Aberdeen, would now go to Bayelsa.
Other countries like UK also practise local content. I studied in France as a postgraduate student. The French has local content law, and sometimes we confuse it with racism. The Ministry of Interior and the Foreign Ministry are the regulators because they are the ones that issue the permits. The slogan was: “Jobs first to the French and after the French, to the Francophone countries.” This was before they became part of the EU.
They know they control domestic unemployment by exporting their human capital all over the world, especially to the francophone countries. So, they never ever mention their local content to the global community. They keep it quiet.
The NCDMB, and Engr. Simbi, have tried. But we need to carefully tone down its voice on the international stage. Nigeria is the greatest exporter of human capital in Africa. Tomorrow, other countries, even within AfCFTA, may adopt stringent local content laws that would require our people to leave. Foreign nations that began local content policy never mentioned it. You would normally encounter local content restrictions only when applying for visa or work permit. Going back to the main question, a big organization is not the way.
Finally, sir, what is wrong with Nigeria? Why is growth so slow-paced?
The main problem is our choice of leadership. We choose the leaders that we want, and they deal with us the way they think we should be dealt with. We don’t have a very progressive mindset in Nigeria. If someone’s interest is protected in what he sees wrong, he allows it to happen. That is not right. But if we insist on what is right, then everybody will benefit from the process. So, we need to reset our mindset. This will make us choose good and honest leaders over leaders that promise heaven and deliver hell.
A good leadership can address all the things you asked me today. A good leadership would have taken the appropriate course of action by not building new universities but going to existing universities and trying to improve them.
Also, there is urgent need to bring down inflation. My mom brought us all up with her small salary as a schoolteacher in Aba years ago. Our father died when we were very young, but she was able to do that because inflation was not what it is today. She was not a trader and she refused to remarry. She did it all alone with her meagre salary.
So, a good leader would control the economy in such a manner that salaries would solve family problems; and low-income earners are empowered to take family responsibilities.
Right now, in the UK, people are asking for higher salaries because of the inflation. But if you give higher salaries, the inflation will respond to that. So, the UK Government and Central Bank are trying to bring down inflation, not pay higher wages. This is a sustainable way to restore value to the wages of teachers, miners, railway workers.
So, all the things we talk about boil down to enthroning good leadership and reorientation of national mindset. Resetting the national mindset is a function of well-orchestrated civic orientation which must be inculcated in the citizens from early age.