This is A. A. Sule’s time

Time is a measure of events, duration and change. Time helps us to structure our expectations and also to measure our performance. The 2023 election is a decimal of time, just as the discovery and drilling of oil in Nasarawa State is an imprint on the sands of time. 

Exactly 252 days ago was the day (and time) President Buhari showed unprecedented courage by transforming NNPC from a government enterprise into a fully commercialized oil company.

Thirty-six weeks after the birth of NNPC Limited, the president has etched his name in gold by the official spud-in or commencement of drilling and exploration of crude oil in Nasarawa State.

Indeed, President Muhammadu Buhari is, without doubt, the beacon, visioner and inspiration behind the drilling of oil in Nasarawa State, but it is safe to adduce that the Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr Abdullahi A. Sule, who is also an oilman, played a key, pivotal role to fast track the practical action taken by the federal government to explore oil in the state. 

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Recall that for years, Nigeria has declared its intention to explore oil in the Chad Basin, Dahomey Basin, Anambra Platform, the Calabar Embankment, Sokoto Basin, Bida Basin, and the Ultra-Deepwater Niger Delta as well as the Benue Trough, but such audacious ideas always stopped at the doorstep of lofty dreams and intangible ideas. 

Engr Sule has always been practical in his orientation from his tutelage as a student of Government Technical College Bukuru to the time he went to obtain a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and an MSc in Industrial Technology from Indiana State University, USA. 

As tales of the extraordinary go, Engineer Sule, was the helmsman who became Managing Director/CEO of African Petroleum (AP) at its most economically trying time when the share capital was eroded with a negative balance sheet of N22 billion.

Unsurprisingly and without waving a magic wand, it took Engr Sule only six years to turn around the ailing fortunes of African Petroleum from negative N22 billion to a positive surplus share capital of N5 billion. 

Notably, Sule also served on the board of Star-AP Oilfield Services before he went on to become the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Dangote Sugar and alas providence called him to mount the saddle as governor of Nasarawa State in 2019. 

So, with over 35 years of proven experience in oil & gas, it will only be natural instinct for Engr Sule to prod both President Buhari and Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari to fast-track the drilling of oil in Nasarawa State.

President Buhari has already heralded a new era in the petroleum and gas industry by the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) of 2021; and he continues to do his best to ensure that his mandates are implemented in the remaining days before May 29, when he will hand over power.

For the people of Nasarawa State, we owe Mr President a sense of inestimable gratitude for bequeathing on our people a parting gift of lifelong prosperity through petroleum exploration. 

Nasarawa State also thanks Mallam Mele Kyari, the torch bearer and activator who planted the seed of the farsighted idea for NNPC to morph and take its rightful place beside Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and Brazil’s Petrobras. It’s Kyari’s brainchild that has today birth Ebenyi-A oil well in Nasarawa State. 

Finally, there is a chapter in the Holy Quran called “Surah Ar-Rahman which is often regarded as the ‘beauty of the Quran’, because it is stated in “Ar-Rahman” that God Almighty “laid out the earth like a vast roll of carpet and blessed the land (offshore) with fruit, palm trees, dates, grains and scented plants; while God also created the seas and enriched it with pearl, coral etc.  Today crude oil is found in the deep seas as well as on land, just like Nasarawa State has been blessed.

This was the analogy which the Emir of Lafia, Justice Sidi Bage Muhammad, was making when he reminded the gathering at the official spud-in that the discovery of oil in Nasarawa State was a special gift and favour from Allah, which the people cannot deny and must be grateful. 

Indeed, the drilling of oil has to do with a rare blessing from Almighty God and this is even more divine for Nasarawa State, because at this point in its history and development, the state is lucky to have a governor in the person of Engr Abdullahi A. Sule, who has over 35 years proven experience and global exposure in the oil & gas subsector. 

 Lamai is the Director General, Strategic Communication & Events Management to the Governor