MAIKANTI Baru, the group managing director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has restated his commitment to growing a healthy and productive workforce in the corporation through sports.

Speaking while teeing off the 2018 NNPC Upstream Golf Tournament in Benin City, Edo State, the GMD called on staff to seize every opportunity to engage in sporting activities to relieve the drudgery of work and keep fit.

He said the corporation would always support the annual event in keeping with his management’s vision of infusing work with pleasure to build a strong and healthy workforce.

“A healthy work force is one that can think faster and can deliver faster. One way to keep healthy is to exercise well. If you exercise well, then your brain is going to work fast. We need those sharp brains in our system in order to be very productive and do things right the first time,” Baru stated.

He also commended the managements of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company Limited, NPDC, and Integrated Data Services Limited, IDSL, both upstream subsidiaries of NNPC, for sponsoring the tournament which was revived last year by the Baru-led management.

Also speaking at the event, Philip Shuaibu, deputy governor of Edo State, thanked NNPC for hosting the event in Benin, which he described as the “home of golf.”

He said the State Government considered the golf tournament as an important event which was in tandem with the objective of growing the state’s economy.

“For us we are trying to grow our economy and the only way we can grow our economy is when the people are active and sports is one of those windows that can make us physically and mentally stable to actualize this purpose,” the Deputy Governor stated.

On his part, Jackson Gaius-Obaseki, a former GMD of NNPC, under whose tenure the golf tournament was instituted, commended Baru for sustaining some the programmes instituted by past managements.

Citing the NNPC Golf Tournament and the NNPC National Science Quiz Competition as some of the programmes that have enjoyed the support of the Baru-led management, Gaius-Obaseki said the programmes were well thought out and expressed gratitude to the GMD for seeing the good in them.

The event attracted a lot of dignitaries and avid golfers from across the country.

– Aug. 1, 2018 @ 18:29 GMT |