Shortly after we published the June edition of this magazine, yours truly traveled to Uyo. At the local wing of the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos, and sitting next to him was an official of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC. He was waiting to take a fight. We both engaged ourselves in a long discussion on diverse issues in the oil industry.
The nose for news made me to ask my new found friend a striking question as to why NNPC contracts are shrouded in secrecy and hardly follow international best practices despite the fact that the corporations bids attract global interest. His response was defensive as expected.
Even then he wanted the editor-in-chief (Yours truly) to be specific.
Armed with some pieces of information and coming at a time that transparency is on the front burner of this administration, reference was made to the construction of an FPSO Egina project bid which Hyundai won in 2012 but was not awarded to the company. His reaction got me thinking.
Upon return from the trip, at an editorial board meeting, the issue was brought before the editors and right there, editors agreed that it was a good story to pursue, if only to get to the bottom of the bid/tender process. The task of putting information together and contacting foreign journalists who observed the bid process of the Egina FPSO