Financial Energy Review
While conducting the guests, which comprised officers between the ranks of Lieutenant
Colonel and General currently undergoing an 11-month Leadership and Strategic
Course 3/2024, round different sections and facilities of the Board, Dr Ikuru had the
team familiarised with the Board’s Technology Innovation and Incubation Centre (TIIC).
Its success story in aiding individuals with innovative ideas and facilitating technology
adaptation and process improvement was highlighted.
In further elaboration of the Board’s activities and engagements, the Director, Monitoring
and Evaluation, Alhaji Abdulmalik Halilu, noted that there is a history of “mutually
beneficial partnership between the Army and the NCDMB,” citing the involvement of the
Board’s personnel as resource persons at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
According to him, “It is good the military sees NCDMB as a partner.”
In his own remarks, the General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal
Coordination, Barr. Esueme Dan Kikile, said the visit of the military officers who are
Participants of the Leadership and Strategic Course 3/2024 from the NARC, afforded
the Board and guests a useful platform for interaction and knowledge sharing. He urged
the guests to “tell the success story of the NCDMB” wherever they find themselves”.
Team leader for the military officers, Major General Abubakar A. Tarfa (retd), explained
that the Local Study Tour was part of an 11-month course and that members of the team
were all professionals in diverse fields – engineering, medicine, nursing, and
administration, among others.
He said the course was designed “To prepare participants for higher responsibilities”
and that the tour would provide necessary exposure, to have the officers acquainted
with the NCDMB and its role and monitoring programmes that “ensure steady growth in
local content” in the oil and gas industry.
Major General Tarfa pointed out that there is “a relationship between leadership,
strategy and national security,” and that the training and associated activities underline
such realities. He said “military assistance to civil authority for oil production in the Niger
Delta toward national development” was a major motivating factor in their study tour of
the state.
Speaking on behalf of participants, Lt. Col. Juliet Aziekwu expressed appreciation for
the interactive session, stating, “We are better informed about the NCDMB and its role;
we’ll put the knowledge into use.”
Earlier in opening remarks, the Deputy Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal
Coordination, Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, had noted that there was a nexus between what the
military officers were in the state to do and what the NCDMB does, that is, capacity
building. He said they were thus in the right place.
On the entourage of the NARC team was the Commander of the 16th Brigade of the
Nigerian Army, Yenagoa, Brigadier General Oluremi Obolo.
