DRIVING NIGERIA’S ENGINEERING INITIATIVES

Maikanti Kacalla Baru pays tribute to Alfred Okoigun, an engineer and chief executive of Arco Group of companies

Ihave known Mr Alfred Okoigun for over 25 years. In those years, he has proven to be an astute, resolute and dependable engineer worthy of emulation in both persona and character. Indeed, it will interest you to know that Okoigun is an ex-staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in the late 70s. I am therefore delighted to be here to celebrate this distinguished alumnus of NNPC. How else do you honour a man who at a young age after graduation from the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Warri had the initiative and vision to set up an engineering outfit Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company in 1980 to provide engineering capability on rotating and reciprocating equipment (gas turbines, steam-turbines and compressors) when he had all the opportunity to stay employed in an oil exploration and production company? His resilience paid off when his company became the then sole Nigerian representative of Nuovo Pignone SPA, the Italian government-owned manufacturer of Steam/Gas Turbines, Gas Compressors and pumps.

How else do you honour this passionate engineer who followed his passion true and through and has been running that engineering outfit for over 35 years adding and creating and re-creating value to the Nigerian oil and gas industry?

How else do we honour this outstanding Nigerian who has grown that little company in 1980 into a conglomerate that not only deals in engineering and maintenance but also has diversified into marine logistics, maritime security, pipelines and facilities inspection, property development and consumer power generation?

How else do we honour this outstanding Nigerian who has migrated his company from that run by himself to a group of companies run by competent and tested professionals and who has on his payroll over 400 indigenous employees who deliver outstanding services operating from different offices in Lagos, Warri, Port Harcourt and London? In particular, he has transformed the ARCO Petrochemical Engineering Company Plc into an Arco Group Plc comprising of ARCO Maintenance and Engineering Ltd (AMEL), ARCO Worldwide Services, ARCO Marine & Oilfield Services and ARCO Integrity Services Ltd.

How else do we honour this man who has continuously identified and supported various engineering initiatives in Nigeria for several decades? Through ARCO, he has sponsored over 40 engineers, technocrats and energy correspondents for training programmes and facility visits to oil and gas equip- ment manufacturing firms and to exhibitions and seminars on energy matters in Nigeria, Italy, Switzerland, USA, Brazil and Argentina. Also, to demonstrate his support for The Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE), he recently inaugurated a joint committee known as the NAE-ARCO Group Academia and Industry Linkage with the objective of identifying viable engineering innovations by Nigerians and to assist in translating them into scalable commercial activities.

It is for this reason and many more that NNPC will continue to support Arco Group and many other indigenous companies alike so that your story and the story of others in your mould will continue to be a sweet savour.

May I humbly then submit that this Honorary Fellowship conferment on Alfred Okoigun by the highest professional engineering body in Nigeria is a testament of your distinguished leadership, your contribution to the engineering profession, your outstanding achievements, your exceptional character and not forgetting your contribution s to the well-being of the society at large.

Sir, I dare say, this is an honour well deserved. The cap really fits!

To the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, I commend your leadership and promotion of policies relating to the general advancement and promotion of excellence in Science, Engineering, Technology and innovation for a better economy and society. In your 21 years of existence, you have indeed proven to be the national “Think

Tank” for engineering and technology. We in NNPC are proud to be associated with you.

When Alfred informed me of this honour, I couldn’t but tell him that I will surely be here to show my support. He is not only a fine gentleman but a dogged fighter with a deep sense of enthusiasm.

On a lighter note, we share some common similarities; he is GMD as I am, he is a Mechanical Engineer as I am and he is also soft-spoken as I am. Perhaps, the seeming difference is that he is a bit taller than I am and with this honour has been elevated to another level as a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (FNAEng).

Excerpts from the speech delivered by Dr. Baru, Group Managing Director, NNPC at the conferment of Honorary Fellowship on Alfred Okoigun, Group MD/ CEO of Arco Group Plc, by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering.

TO THE NIGERIAN ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING, I COMMEND YOUR LEADERSHIP AND PROMOTION OF POLICIES RELATING TO THE GENERAL ADVANCEMENT AND PROMOTION OF EXCELLENCE IN SCIENCE, ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION FOR A BETTER ECONOMY AND SOCIETY