The Ibe Kachikwu's memo, why PMB should act now, fast

Making the round on the social media and the conventional media since Tuesday was the leaked memo written by the minister of state for petroleum resources, Ibe Kachikwu to his principal, President Mohammadu Buhari. Revealing as it is, the memo exposed the undercurrent of power play in government and the negative implication to the politic.
Outlining his grievance against his subordinate to the president in the memo, Kachikwu complained of insubordination by the GMD of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, to his office and flagrant disregard to the government policy of transparency in the award of contract estimated at $25 billion single-handedly by the NNPC boss without reference to the board.
“The legal and procedural requirement is that all contracts above $20m would need to be reviewed and approved by the board of NNPC Mr President, in over one year of Mr Baru’s tenure, no contract has been run through the board,” Kachikwu said in the memo.
On record, Kachikwu is the chairman of the board of the oil giant and supposed to oversee major actions of all the parastatals under his watch and the minister of state in charge of the petroleum industry. However, in reality, it was not so. Those who are under his supervision have surreptitiously created another route of reporting to their overall superior boss, who happens to be the president or some powerful people within the presidency.
In military term, this could be termed indiscipline and subjected to a summary dismissal of the culprit and God help such subordinate if the act of indiscipline is linked to a coup de tat, the outcome would be an outright execution.
But this is not a military rule and as such the NNPC Big shot could be pardoned for his misdemeanour and perhaps hailed for knowing his way around the corridor of power.
Even, under the military rule, history told of some military junior officers who flagrantly disobeyed a lawful order of later Brigadier-General Ogundipe who was the most senior military officer shortly after the second military coup of 1966 and heaven did not fall. We were told that Ogundipe, who was able to quickly pick up the signal, ran for his dear life before it becomes too late for him in the grave.
Such is the favour often confer on some people either due to the side of the geography they come from or the power behind their throne.
Kachikwu memo exposes the underbelly of the dysfunctional political system we are operating and the deception of the theory of strong leader Vs strong institution.
Without prejudice to the other side of the story; would Baru have had the gut to make such a far-reaching changes in such an organization in another realm without running it through with his board chairman, even if it is by the way of information before making it public?
Would such condition have been possible in a private sector company where the line of duties and functions of each board and management members are well spelt out?
We are aware that the president is a retired military man and understand very clearly the line of authority and the implications of a subordinate disregarding his superior to carry out an action that could bring his office to ridicule.
I am also aware that those around the president should understand the enormous damage the leaked memo could do to the image of our president and the tripod his government agenda stands upon if not properly managed.
To prove to the whole world that the ongoing fight against corruption is not a fluke, to reassure Nigerians that tribalism is not a consideration in the appointment and sustaining of some key figures in this government and to rebuild confidence in the already distrust populace who are already with the perspective that in Nigeria some animals are more equal than the other, the president should stamp his authority on the issue on the ground without fear or favour.
Whoever is found to be culpable in all the allegations contained in the memo should be rigorously investigated and made to face the wrath of the law.
Anything short of this will further provide the critics of the government the right weapon to cut it down to size.
Nigeria cannot afford the divisive tendency which is playing out in the petroleum industry, which is very pivotal to the economy of the country. It is an issue like this that is fueling agitations for the so-called restructuring across the geopolitical divide.
The president must nip this cancerous issue in the bud before it spread and cause incalculable damage to the nation fragile stability.