What Barkindo told me hours before he died — Femi Adesina

The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Femi Adesina, has revealed what the then outgoing Secretary-General of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Alhaji Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, told him hours before he died.

Recall that as reported by The Eagle Online, Barkindo was at the Presidential Villa in the morning of the day he died.

The OPEC scribe, who has since been buried, had a scheduled meeting with President Buhari at 10am on July 5, 2022.

Adesina was the Master of Ceremony for the meeting, which formed part of the rounding off of Barkindo’s tour of duty after six years.

He said in his every Friday column: “We started congregating in the council chamber (of the Presidential Villa), venue of the meeting, from about 9:30am.

“Barkindo came with two of his sons, and some members of the OPEC Secretariat. Bigwigs of the oil industry, led by Timipre Sylva, Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, and other top shots were equally on hand, to be part of the tribute to a true Nigerian son, who had made the country proud both at home and abroad.”

Adesina said upon sighting him from afar, behind the podium, before the event started, Barkindo got up from his seat and strode briskly towards him.

He then traced the genesis of their friendship: “We had known each other since between 2009 and 2010, when he had served as Group Managing Director of the NNPC. All our meetings since then had always been genial, convivial. Just last December, he had sent me end of the year gift all the way from Vienna, seat of OPEC.

“I came from behind the podium to receive Alhaji Barkindo. We shook hands, and he thanked me for what he called the good works I’d been doing ‘for President Buhari and for the country,’ praying that God would reward me. I said amen, congratulated him for a successful tenure at OPEC, and gave best wishes for the future.”

As earlier reported by The Eagle Online, Barkindo died at about 11pm that night.

Kyari announced his demise in the early hours of July 6, 2022 via his Twitter handle.