The incoming Secretary General of the
Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammed Barkindo,
has advised the Federal Government to adopt the strategy of ‘carrots
and sticks’ in handling Niger Delta militants.
Barkindo, who attributed his emergence
as OPEC scribe to the forthrightness and integrity of President
Muhammadu Buhari, spoke with State House correspondents after a brief
meeting with the President at the State House in Abuja on Tuesday.
He said Buhari had been able to positively reposition the nation’s image among the comity of nations.
He said he came to know of the workability of the ‘carrots and stick’ option based on his experience.
The incoming OPEC Secretary General was a former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Barkindo said “For me, based on my own
experience here, the option of carrot and stick, as they call it, I
think is the way forward.
“Government, I understand, is
negotiating, discussing and we are beginning to see positive results.
So, I don’t think it will be proper to preempt these discussions that
are being handled by Dr. Kachukwu.
“But I remain confident that through
these negotiations, stable and permanent solutions will be found to this
problem because the Niger Delta region is a very important part of our
country and whatever we can do to address the challenges of development
I think is the way forward.
“I have been told that production is
beginning to rise again. So, for us in OPEC, this is the first thing we
look at. How much is a member country producing? When we saw that
production was falling in Nigeria as a result of recent challenges, the
international community, the market also took note of that. But now I
think things are beginning to come back to nomalcy and I have seen some
of your reports that are also very positive.”
On how he eventually emerged as the new
OPEC scribe, Barkindo said “This is not the first time that our country
has attempted to secure this position. This time around, seven countries
including our good selves, stepped forward in the ring and out of the
seven, four of them are actually founding members of OPEC.
“We have certain classification of
membership. We have founding members and they are five of them that met
in Baghdad, Iraq on 1st of September 1960 to give birth to this
organisation. So they occupy a special status in the organisation. Four
of them contested with us bringing the total number to seven. Glory be
God because the tremendous amount of respect and goodwill that our
president has internationally, has made it possible for us to scale
through because all the six stepped down for us at the end of the day.
“It is not just Nigeria they took into
cognizance, the integrity and status of Mr. President that anybody that
he will put his stamp of authority and endorse should be considered and
should be given a chance.”
The OPEC scribe also commended the
Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, for deploying his
persuasive skills while campaigning for his election.
Of Kachikwu, Barkindo said “I am
extremely impressed with the way and manner he carried out this special
assignment given to him by Mr. President.
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