Maikanti Baru
The immediate past group managing director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, is dead.
This was disclosed by Mele Kyari, the current GMD of the state-run oil company.
“My brother, my friend and my mentor, Dr Maikanti Kachalla Baru, immediate past GMD of NNPC died late last night,” TheCable quoted Kyari as saying.
“He was of exemplary character and disposition. May Allah forgive him and have mercy upon him.”
Baru was appointed NNPC GMD by President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2016, a position he held up until 2019.
Baru was born in July 1959 in Misau, Bauchi State and attended Federal Government College, Jos for his secondary education where he graduated in 1978. He obtained his bachelor of engineering degree from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria in 1982 and a doctorate in Computer Aided Engineering from the University of Sussex.
He worked with the Jos Steel Rolling Company for three years from 1988 before he left to join the NNPC 1n 1991 as an Engineering Manager. 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.
From 1999 to 2004, he served as the Chief Technical Negotiator on the West African Gas Pipeline Project.
A Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Baru had previously served as the Group General Manager (GGM) of National Petroleum Investment Management Services.
He died on May 29, 2020 at the age of 60.