A former Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Kachalla Baru, died on Friday.
He has been buried in Abuja according to Islamic rites.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, announced Baru’s death on Saturday on his verified Twitter handled.
Kyari described him as a leader with exemplary leadership qualities.
READ: Family, associates mourn former NNPC GMD as tributes pour in
However, apart from knowing him as a former NNPC GMD, only few Nigerians know what Baru was before his death.
Below are few important things you probably don’t know about him:
1. Maikanti Kachalla Baru was born on July 7, 1959 in Misau, Bauchi State.
2. He attended Federal Government College, Jos for his secondary education where he graduated in 1978.
3. National President of the FGC Jos Old Students’ Magaji Michael, said the late Baru set a record at the FGC Jos scoring 9 A1 in his West Africa School Certificate Examination.
4. Baru obtained his bachelor of engineering degree from Ahmadu Bello University in 1982 and a doctorate in Computer Aided Engineering from the University of Sussex.
5. He worked with the Jos Steel Rolling Company for three years from 1988 before he left to join the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in 1991 as an Engineering Manager.
6. He held various positions within the organization including General Manager, Gas Development Division from 1997 to 1999 and briefly as Executive Director, Operations Nigeria Gas Company (NGC) in 1999.
7. From 1999 to 2004, he served as the Chief Technical Negotiator on the West African Gas Pipeline project.
8. He was also a GGM, National Petroleum Investment Management Services.
9. He once served as GGM, Liquefied Natural Gas.
10. Baru was appointed as the 18th Group Managing Director of NNPC, on 4 July 2016.
11. On reaching the statutory age of 60, he retired on 7 July 2019 and was succeeded by Mele Kyari.
12. Baru was a fellow of Nigerian Society of Engineers and Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
13. He lost three immediate members of his family; his mother, sister and son —all in one year (2017).
14. Baru died on Friday, May 29, 2020 from an undisclosed illness.
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