By Obinna Nwachi
Dr. Obateru bows out after 29 years of meritorious service to the NNPC. |
Obateru assumed office as the Group General Manager, Group
Public Affairs Division of NNPC in March 2020 at a time when various countries
across the world, including Nigeria, were going into lockdown to curb the
spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. He quickly retooled the Division to be able to
promptly respond to the challenges of the time. This saw the robust engagement
of the Corporation’s publics with the Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele
Kyari, leading the charge in clarifying the issues around production cuts,
decline in crude oil sales and efforts to shore up revenues for the nation.
Apart from ensuring the vigorous implementation of the
corporation’s Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE)
through timely communication of NNPC’s operations and activities, Obateru
maintained an open-door policy which ensured prompt handling of all enquiries.
This obviously resulted in a near-zero bad press for the NNPC in the one and
half years he held sway as the chief reputation manager.
Speaking on Obateru’s style and professionalism, the
Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency
Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, stated that he owed the very
cordial relationship his agency enjoys with NNPC to Obateru’s engaging human
relations skills. “It is with mixed feelings I learnt about Kennie’s
retirement. Kennie Obateru is a very tall man, taller in ideas but tallest in
competence and integrity. He’s a man of details, learns lessons from
opportunities and from the ups and downs of life. We had a smooth working
relationship with the NNPC during his tenure and it was all due to his style,”
he declared.
Stakeholders from across all sectors of the oil and gas
industry who had the good fortune to encounter him in his long career that
spanned 29 years across various subsidiaries and the Corporate Headquarters of
the Corporation are all agreed about Obateru’s excellent human relations
skills. One of such is Sopuruchi Onwuka, the publisher of Oracle News who
traced his first encounter with Obateru to his days at the Manager, Public
Affairs Department, Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC), Port Harcourt,
Rivers State. He described Obateru as a thoroughbred public relations
professional and a perfect relationship manager who succeeded in getting the
public to see NNPC through him.
“He is down to earth in his dealing with people. He is
polite and urbane. He doesn’t talk down on you or force you to accept his point
of view, he wins you over. Another thing I find particularly fascinating about
Dr. Obateru is his ability to listen patiently and respond to issues no matter how
busy he is. If his busy schedule makes it difficult to take your call and
respond to your questions immediately, he will send a text message that he will
get back to you, and he returns with answers,” Onwuka stated.
From colleagues and media practitioners who had to deal with
daily in the course of his job, none could think of anything negative to say
about Obateru as a person or his style as a reputation manager. A veteran
energy journalist, Mr Olusola Bello, who related with him closely for years in
the course of his job described Obateru thus: “He is a very competent public
relations man, he knows his job. He is very accessible and always reaching out.
In fact he has a way of drawing people close and taking them into confidence
about developments in the industry. This style made it difficult for a lot of
us to do stories that could impact on NNPC and its subsidiaries negatively
because it would make you feel guilty that you are betraying your source”.
Bello’s submission holds the secret to the general positive
reportage NNPC enjoyed throughout Obateru’s tenure as the corporation’s
spokesman, a job for which he came fully prepared by virtue of his vast
experience within the NNPC and the oil industry. Before his appointment as the
Group General Manger, Group Public Affairs of the NNPC in 2020, he was the
General Manager, NNPC London Office.
He joined the services of the Corporation in 1992 as an
experienced hire and since then has held several key and strategic positions in
the Public Affairs Division.
He was Manager, Public Affairs of the National Petroleum
Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), a corporate service unit of the NNPC
between 2010 and 2015.
Prior to that, he was Manager, Public Affairs Department,
Port Harcourt Refining Company (PHRC) between 2008 and 2010 and was Manager,
Media Relations in the Group Public Affairs Division from 2007 to 2008.
Dr. Obateru was Deputy Manager, Media Relations in GPAD
between 2006 and 2007, and served as a team member in Project PACE-SMS, CP Core
Process Teams between 2005 and 2006.
From 2001 to 2005, he served as Supervisor, Budget &
Planning in GPAD. He also doubled as Supervisor, Audio Visual, between 2000 and
2001. His versatility was brought to bear on the print side of the corporate
communication business when he diligently served as Editor, NNPC News, a
monthly publication of the Group Public Affairs Division from 1998 to 2000.
Between1993 and1998, Dr. Obateru was the Protocol Officer to
the then Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources. He cut his teeth in the
Corporation as a Protocol and Consular Officer between 1992 and1993.
He is an alumnus of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism,
Lagos; University of Ilorin and University of Stirling, Scotland, United
Kingdom, where he obtained a Certificate in News Reporting, a B.A. (Hons)
Performing Arts and an M.Sc. in Public Relations respectively.
In 2012, Obateru joined the doctoral club of eggheads when
he was awarded a Doctorate Degree in Management (Honoris Causa) by the
Commonwealth University, Belize.
He has attended numerous professional courses and
conferences at home and abroad which included three (3) International Public
Relations Association Conferences, five (5) World Petroleum Congresses (WPCs)
and 15 OPEC Ministerial Conferences among others.
Dr. Obateru is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public
Relations, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, a member of the
International Public Relations Association, a senior member of the Africa
Public Relations Association as well as a member of the Nigeria Institute of
Management.
His hobbies include Lawn Tennis, Table Tennis, reading and
dancing. Dr. Obateru is happily married and his union is blessed with four
children.
Obinna Nwachi, a public commentator and analyst, wrote in
from Abuja.
0 comments:
Post a Comment