Barely a week after President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Mele Kolo Kyari as the new Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Thomas M. Asuquo John has also been announced as the Acting Alternate Chairman of NNPC’s Governing Board. He will be replacing Dr. Ibe Kachikwu who occupied the position until now.
According to a statement signed by the outgoing Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Maikanti Kachalla Baru, the appointment takes effect immediately.
BREAKING:
Press Statement: @MBuhari Appoints Acting Alternate Chairman of @NNPCgroup Governing Board
President @MBuhari has appointed Dr. Thomas M. A. John as Acting Alternate Chairman of the @NNPCgroup Governing Board.
Thread… pic.twitter.com/ePDO9QWsvy
— NNPC Limited (@nnpclimited) June 25, 2019
Dr. John was a former member of the NNPC’s Governing Board prior to his appointment as the Group Managing Director between April 1990 and June 1992. He was succeeded by Mr. Edmund Daukoru following his voluntary resignation.
In line with the latest appointment, he will perform as the Acting Alternate Chairman of the NNPC’s Governing Board until the President appoints a new Minister of Petroleum Resources.
[ALSO READ: NNPC gets new Group Managing Director]
Note that Dr. John’s appointment as an Alternate Chairman of the NNPC Governing Board is in accordance with Section 1(3) and 2(1) of the NNPC Act.
His brief Profile: Dr. Thomas M. Asuquo John, who hails from Calabar, Cross River State, is a 1968 graduate of Chemical Engineering from Prague Institute of Chemical Technology, Czech Republic. He holds a Ph.D. in Reaction Kinetics from Queen’s University, Canada.
Thomas is a commonwealth research fellow and a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers. He started his engineering career with the APAPA Chemical Industries, a Subsidiary of the Leventis Group, after a brief stint with the University of Lagos, Akoka.
Dr. Thomas joined the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in 1974 as a Project Engineer. For 16 years, Dr. John supervised the design, engineering, construction, and commissioning of the Warri and Kaduna refineries; the three Petrochemical Plants in Warri and Kaduna.
Thomas John served as the first Managing Director of the Eleme (Indorama) Petrochemical Company, where he headed the team that negotiated foreign financing for the realization of the Eleme Project.
His last assignment with NNPC was as the Corporation’s Group Managing Director, a position from which he retired voluntarily in 1992.
Prior to his appointment as Acting Chairman of the NNPC Board, he has served on several boards, over the years. He also serves on the Boards of South Atlantic Petroleum Company and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
