Make Nilepet to be Like PETRONAS: An Open Letter to Mr. Joseph Cleto Kuel
5 min readBy Simon Yel Yel, Juba
June 2, 2015 (SSB) — I will begin by thanking the president Salva Kiir Mayardit for the trust he has for you to manage the Nilepet at this critical time where the oil has dropped cheaply in the world market while skyrocketing in South Sudan .South Sudan sells a barrel of crude oil in International market at 40 USD while here in south Sudan we buy a litter of diesel at 6 USD. Congratulations for the post and I hope that you will manage this national oil company very well.
I just want to alert you of the enormity of the task ahead of you and the hopes of millions of south Sudanese that you carry on your lean shoulders. I and other South Sudanese have a hope that you will address this urgent issue of the oil or fuel in the country as your first priority in the office. I came to believe that you are fully prepared and determined to do your job without any lame excuses when I heard on SSTV announcing the meeting called by the newly appointed managing director of the Nilepet ( Joseph Cleto) with fuel suppliers; just two after your appointment. I was very happy and I felt that I should say “CONGRETULATION AND KEEP IT UP”. Keep it up sir!
I don’t know you personally and your strength but your brilliant start of your work gave me a hope that you really deserved to be in that position and I believe that you will execute your assigned duties to the fullest. I have no doubt that you will be a hardworking person like Dr. John Gai of the education, Dr. Riek Gai of the healthy and Awan Gol of the office of the president who are now been praised by every South Sudanese from every works of life. Every South Sudanese say that if they had been appointed since 2005 up to now, then there would have no been issues of syllabus for the education; people dying of Malaria and maternal death in the hospital. I would love you sir to ask them to tell you the secret of” hardworking” so that you become like them. But am convinced that your scintillating start indicates that you are ready to serve the people of South Sudan with all your heart and determined to be counted as one of best managers in the world. Keep that good start up!
Dear Sir, you have had a remarkable career but the job you acquired recently could be your Waterloo if you are not prepared to take the bull by its horns. The outgoing manager did little then nothing but you should determine to match up his footprint toe by toe and do better than he did. Every South Sudanese with exception of few who enter a high office does so with a bang but often exits with a whimper giving excuses that he or she was not given enough time but in reality he or she had nothing in plan to offer. I know it is unfair to judge you by others’ incompetence but beware of the ghosts of integrity axis who are now ready to derail you from your plans for the betterment of the Nilepet and South Sudan oil industry in general. I and many South Sudanese were surprised by high velocity and great acceleration you started your work with in just two days prior to your appointment. Don’t de-accelerate or reduce the velocity sir!. You are the first South Sudanese appointed official by the presidential decree to start work straightaway before you even celebrated your appointment with family, friends and relatives. The appointed ones by presidential decrees do almost spend two to three weeks in some luxurious hotels enjoying themselves without even inquiring the whereabouts of their offices.
Mind you, your eloquence is legendary, but the task at vanguard demands you shut up, and let your actions do the talking as you incandescently started it. I am encouraged by your recent meeting with the fuel suppliers about the skyrocketing of the fuel prices and I appreciated your stand on the price of diesel to drop to be like in 2007 to 2011 where a litter of diesel was five (5) Sudanese pounds. Dear Sir, though the prices of the fuel fall now and we don’t have crude oil refinery here in South Sudan for local consumption, it is still that you didn’t treat the disease well. To treat it well , then you have to make oil refinery for local consumption like the proposed oil refinery in Akon.
The PETRONAS of Malaysia was started like the Nilepet and now PETRONAS ranks as the 12th most profitable company in the world and the most profitable in Asia. It is a national company of Malaysia fully owned by the government like the Nilepet. Now in Malaysia, the PETRONAS has its own university and institute called (INSTEP) for training oil Technicians and Production operators and distribute them every countries where it operates like South Sudan. I would be happy to see the Nilepet opening its institute to train the oil technicians here locally to avoid the expensive hiring of foreigners in the oil fields. Make Nilepet to be like PETRONAS sir!
In collusion, one thing you should remember to observe at all time is, ambition should be made of sterner stuff. You cannot achieve the goals of your vow if you will take instructions and advises from opportunists or those who have never succeeded, or wherever, in the course of your duty. To leave a mark, no mountain should be too high to scale or stone too heavy to turn. If you can commit yourself to pay any price, to bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe or observe and pay whatever the cost it wishes you for the betterment of the Nilepet and South Sudan oil industry, be it better or worse, your place in history is assured.
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