There is no one-way-fits-all approach of dealing with such a situation. A wise businessman would assess every situation, weigh the pros and cons of every possibility, do a cost-benefit analysis of possible approaches before choosing any of the options facing him. The major reason for a calculated and thorough assessment is to avoid what many normally refer to as a “Had I known” situation in the end.
Recently, Mr Christopher Onyeka Palmer, the Chief Executive Officer of Palmeron Nigeria, sent a petition to Mr Mele Kyari, the Chief Executive Officer NNPC Limited informing him of some alleged irregularities and abuse of procurement process in the award of contract for the provision of drillship for TOTAL E&P OML 130 Drilling Campaign.
In the petition, Palmer claimed that the TotalEnergies’ claims that it cannot continue with the tender as INVALID and deceitful as, according to him, the international oil company (IOC) was willing to award the contract to a consortium of TIREX/PIDWAL/NOBLE following an irregular and falsified commercial re-evaluation only about a month before.
His grievance bordered around a correspondence it received from TotalEnergies saying that that the CFT process his company emerged a ‘winner’ has been closed and that no claim for compensation of any kind in respect of the preparation of the tender or any other cost shall be due to tenderer in the event that company decides not or is unable to proceed with the award of the contract.
He further claimed that the IOC’s reason of canceling the earlier process and initiating another one that brought Tirex PE in was to make TIREX a signatory to the contract to capture the interest of those pushing for TIREX.
Shortly after Palmer’s petition, a phony group suspected to be promoted by him, going by the name Association of Concerned Citizens assumed the fight and wrote to the stakeholders of the Nigeria’s oil and gas industry accusing all and sundry including operators in the industry, the management of NNPC and even the Presidency of engaging in fraudulent activities in the sector for self-enrichment and threatening them with EFCC, ICPC, FBI etc.
One of his target operators, Tirex Petroleum and Energy Limited, aggrieved by his allegations took him and his companies up in a bid to clear its name. Tirex PE instituted a court action against Palmer and his companies. With this, Palmer and his companies have one more fight as they have to prove their claims beyond all reasonable doubts, with the accompanying costs including litigation costs and, the cost for damages in the event he fails to prove his claims beyond all reasonable doubts.
Again, his unproven allegations against the management of the two most critical stakeholders in the Nigeria’s oil and gas sector – the NNPC Limited and NAPIMS –are likely to come back and haunt him as they would erode whatever goodwill he may have had, not just with them, but with other stakeholders too. Ironically, the current management of these top institutions have earned the confidence and trust of the powers that be, as well as other stakeholders in the country’s oil and gas industry to the extent that, after several years on the saddle, no one is even contemplating a change of baton.
All these question Mr Palmer’s decision to fight for his perceived rights the way he chose. Maybe, banking on the country’s ‘bastardized’ system, he thought that he could muzzle his way through the issue by dragging all and sundry into the fight. Unfortunately, it looks like he is having a boomerang.
What would have happened had Palmeron Nigeria taken its fight only to TotalEnergies that are the joint venture operators? Chances are that he would have had only one contender to fight–TotalEnergies. He would also have saved himself the distraction of having multiple court cases to attend to, with the attendant heavy litigation costs. Above all, he would not have had to burn down the number of bridges he has so far burned down in fighting these many stakeholders in the industry in the courts and with probe threats.
Everyone who knows the oil and gas industry and indeed any sector of the economy, for that matter, understands the importance of bridges in ensuring the survival of businesses. Now he is increasingly turning himself and his companies into pariah entities by fighting with almost all his most critical stakeholders in the industry who see his petition as an embarrassment to both the industry and the country. Given this reality, one wonders who he has to do business with in the future.
Common sense demands that you focus on your opponent in any fight and ignore every other one but it is not clear Mr Palmer deployed this agelong advice in this fight. His current reality is that, in a bid to fight TotalEnergies, he has, inadvertently, initiated another fight with Tirex Petroleum and Energy Limited, The NNPC, NAPIMS and many other stakeholders. Strategic Studies scholars advise against fighting multi-frontal wars, a situation Mr Palmer has found himself in. On how he comes out of it, only time will tell.
