BUHARI RELOCATES APPO HQS
Buhari betrays Nigeria: APPO headquaters to be relocated to Brazzaville
The president is miffed at the fact that the junior oil minister is making no secret of his opposition to relocating the APPO headquarters from Abuja, and staking his claim that Buhari’s controversial decision, was against the strategic interests of Nigeria as Africa’s leading oil producer, according to sources close to the president who elected anonymity for discussing what one described as “private state matters.”
It remains unclear why the president decided to act against Nigeria’s best interest but APPO sources hinted to Huhuonline.com that the move was the outcome of intense lobbying and horse-trading involving Congolese President, Denis Sassou Nguesso and Equatorial-Guinean president Teodoro Obiang Nguema. President Buhari’s role remains unclear but the sources believe, he stands to personally reap financial gain estimated to be in millions of dollars from the Congolese government.
Huhuonline.com learnt from sources at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that ever since the APPO headquarters were moved to Abuja, Kachikwu has campaigned relentlessly to keep the institution firmly seated on Nigerian soil. However, at the Cape VII Congress and Exhibition featuring APPO council of ministers which held in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea from April 2-5, 2019, Kachikwu was surprise to learn from the Congolese Oil Minister, Jean-Marc Thystere Tchicaya, that President Buhari now favors the idea of transferring the APPO headquarters back to Congo-Brazzaville.
Organized by Africa Oil & Power, the congress brought all APPO petroleum ministers and private sector oil and gas leaders, representing the largest and most influential gathering of oil and gas ministers on the African continent. APPO sources told Huhuonline.com that the lead-up to the Cape VII gathering, became a heated battle between three country members all vying to host the organization’s future headquarters. Temporarily transferred to Abuja since 2017, the headquarters has been the subject of intensive lobbying from three of its members – Nigeria, Congo-Brazzaville and Equatorial Guinea.
Huhuonline.com also learnt that although APPO had been headquartered in Brazzaville for several decades, member states decided to transfer the offices to Abuja in 2017 because the organization had lost its gravitas and become moribund and needed a fresh impetus for greater efficiency. APPO sources also told Huhuonline.com that Congo-Brazzaville had not paid its membership dues to the organization for several years while the nepotism and discrimination against other members was stinking after it was discovered that 16 of the 21 top-level APPO employees were all Congolese. The decision was then made to transfer the headquarters from Brazzaville to Abuja
However, Congolese president, Sassou Nguesso has refused to relinquish this status symbol and has launched a well-oiled lobbying campaign to get the headquarters back to Brazzaville. An APPO source who elected anonymity owing to the sensitive nature of the issue involving a member country, told Huhuonline.com that Congolese President Sassou Nguesso recently freed up one of his planes for his Minister of foreign affairs Jean-Claude Gakosso and oil minister, Jean-Marc Thystere Tchicaya to jet off to APPO member states to lobby and convince them to relocate the organization’s headquarters back to Brazzaville. The two ministers met in March with the heads of state of Chad, Idriss Deby, Gabon, Ali Bongo, Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, and Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Also, a very high-power Congolese delegation including over 40 senior officials from the national petroleum company (SNPC) and oil ministry was sent to Malabo for the Cape VII meeting. The Congolese president is said to have brought pressure to bear on President Buhari who finally caved in and is now in favor of relocating the APPO headquarters from Abuja back to Brazzaville.
Ostensibly surprised by the Nigerian decision, Equatorial Guinea is now trying to punch above its weight. The Equatorial Guinean Minister of Petroleum, Gabriel Obiang Lima, was said to have confronted Kachikwu in Malabo and made it categorically clear that, if for whatever reason, Nigeria no longer wants to host the organization; Equatorial Guinea is ready to host APPO in Malabo for the long term. Indeed, NNPC sources told Huhuonline.com that Gabriel Obiang was surprised by the new position taken by his Nigerian counterpart.
According to the Equatorial Guinean minister, Congo-Brazzaville had been given its chance and its management of the association was a dismal failure. He argued that APPO's headquarters should be relocated to Malabo. Cape VII was the perfect opportunity for Gabriel Obiang to showcase leadership and personal commitment. He attended most of the debates, which covered local content issues, APPO's future and support for Equatorial Guinean companies. It is only the second Cape summit where the host country president - Obiang Nguema - came in person to open the debates after the late Libyan leader; Muammar Gaddafi attended the event when it was hosted by Tripoli in 2003.
APPO was created on January 27, 1987 in Lagos, Nigeria, to serve as a platform to promote cooperation, and collaboration in petrochemical research and technology, among African oil producing countries. The founding of APPO was spearheaded by Nigeria as an effort to mitigate the nation's dependency on Western technology and Western markets for oil export revenues. The organization changed its name from African Petroleum Producers Association to African Petroleum Producers Organization in 2017.
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