Class Act: AITEO Celebrates President Buhari

Benny Peters may have shown himself as a dogged businessman with astuteness and prescience of John Rockefeller; another trait of his yet to be accorded recurring epistolary mentions is his unparalleled patriotism. The founder and chairman of one of the most prosperous conglomerates in the Nigeria’s petroleum industry, Aiteo Group, has often time displayed that statesmanship is not an exclusive preserve for political players alone. The Onicha Oloma, Delta-born industrialist, Peters, chose the occasion of President Muhammadu Buhari re-election to show the beauty of his spirit when he went all out to present the President a giant cake with a life-size greeting card.

Ornamented in Nigeria colour of green and white and the nation’s Coat of Arms, the gifts conspicuously bore the Aiteo label and logo in a manner that shows the company identifies with the strides of President Buhari, which has just been rewarded with another four-year second term.

The presentation which was made by Samira Buhari, the group general manager, public sector, AITEO Group, became a truly regal scene when the characteristically taciturn and hardly impressionable President Buhari became visibly elated and gleefully took pictures to show his profound appreciations and gladness. Not a few analysts have adjudged Benny Peters’ gesture as thoughtful and graceful. This is not the first time Peters has displayed munificence, especially through his business concerns.

It was an ingenious masterstroke from Benny Peters when his Aiteo Group deployed ‘Blue Ocean’ approach to football sponsorship in Nigeria in 2017. With N2.5 billion five-year-contract (with likelihood of renewal for one year after expiration) signed with the NFF, Aiteo fashioned a model hitherto unexplored in the history of football sponsorship in Nigeria.

It examined the administrative architecture of the NFF, and pinned its corporate social responsibility focus on terms of contracts of Super Eagles’ coaches. As “Official Optimum Partner of the NFF”, Aiteo Group is granted exclusive rights to cover all local and foreign components of the NFF’s financial obligations for the main team. With this deal, the days when players and coaches complained of delay or outright refusal to pay match bonuses and allowances are now in distant past.  The needless friction between coaches/players and NFF has since been eliminated, as players have stopped given excuses as they now turn up at camps for national assignments.

When the Federal Government’s crusade of local content participation in the country’s upstream oil and gas business was barely gathering a momentum, Benny Peters exhibited rare bravery when he took a major risk and heavily invested. The transfer to Aiteo Eastern E&P Company Limited of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC)’s 30 per cent stakes and operatorship of the oil mining lease 29 and the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (OML29 and NCTL) and related facilities in the Eastern Niger Delta marked a turning point in Aiteo’s strategic operations. That divestment transaction also saw Total E&P Nigeria Limited and Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited assign their interests of 10% and 5% respectively in the lease, ultimately giving Aiteo Eastern E&P Company Limited a 45% interest in OML29 and the Nembe Creek Trunk Line.

Again, when it seemed the nation would grapple with the challenge of low oil production for a long, Aiteo it was who brought message of possibility and hope when it struck an unprecedented accord with host communities that gave rise to its E & P activities which in turn brought about the landmark 90,000 barrel per day production that was celebrated in the media with pageantry. The feat came on the heel of the lacklustre output that peaked at 23,000bpd a year earlier prior to its take-over of the OML 29. It has since been a roller-coaster for Benny Peters.