NAPENews Magazine June 2022 Edition

14 Questions
with NAPE
President
Dr. James Edet, FNAPE
Dr. James John Edet, FNAPE, the 46th President of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE)
and Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Research & Environment., TOTALEnergies EP Nigeria Limited,
spoke to NAPEnews on a variety of issues ranging from the need to equip the NAPE membership with new skills
needed for the future work place, Nigeria's Geosciences curriculum, how NAPE and its membership can embrace the
imminent energy transition.
1. You graduated with a bachelor's
degree in geology in 1983 and a master's
degree in the same discipline in 1988
from the University of Calabar. In 1995,
you graduated with a doctorate in
geology from the University of London.
Why did you choose to study geology?
I would say that several things had to come
together to determine or inform my choice to
study geology.
Firstly, I had parents who were liberal on
career choices but at the same time
preferred that their children attend schools
in the immediate vicinity to make care,
support and monitoring less cumbersome.
Secondly, I was fortunate to have an
international mix of teachers and instructors
at the Unity school I attended, which led to
my interaction with a British geologist, who
was on a one-year foreign program in
Nigeria but was teaching us English
Language.
Thirdly, during one of my personal
interactions with him, he painted a picture of
how exciting and rewarding the study of
geology could be. As an easily
impressionable and curious young man, I
was hooked and intent on knowing more
about this course that provided deeper
insight into the study of the earth besides
geography which we all knew about.
So, when it came to choosing a course of
study to proceed to the university, for me, it
was a no-brainer that geology was the
compromise course of study because I could
study it close to home in respect of my
parent's wishes and at the same time do the
course of study I chose out of curiosity.
“
I was fortunate to have
an international mix of
t e a c h e r s a n d
instructors. This led to
my interaction with a
British geologist, who
was on a one-year
foreign programme in
N i g e r i a t e a c h i n g
English Language.
”
2. If you were not a geologist, what other
career choice would you have made?
As a science inclined student in secondary
school, I could have chosen a career in
Medicine, Engineering or Architecture but
these would have meant leaving my parent's
comfort zone of an immediate vicinity school
to a distant university and this would have
been against their wishes. It is also pertinent
to note that at the time, the medical school in
my immediate vicinity was at its infancy and
without accreditation.
3. Do you think the geology curriculum
in our tertiary institutions is meeting the
emerging trends in the oil and gas
industry and equipping graduates with
the requisite skills for entrepreneurship?
I have heard general comments and
complaints that the stringent regulations on
the national curriculum imposed by the
National Universities Commission (NUC) is
the reason the quality of education in tertiary
institutions has dwindled or stagnated, and
this invariably means that graduates are not
imparted with the requisite skills for
entrepreneurship as well as meeting up with
emerging trends in the oil and gas industry.
Before giving my opinion on this issue, I
would like to firstly, make a distinction
between curriculum and syllabus because
understanding the place of these two terms
will help clarify my position and hence, what
needs to be done.
A curriculum is a document with a set of
guidelines provided by a body of educators
(in Nigeria this body is the NUC) to help
provide accreditation and decide on the
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