I was born and raised in a country whose one of her sources of revenue is Oil, according

to the Oil and Gas Journal, she had an estimated 37.2 billion barrels of proven oil
reserves as of January 2010, and she is an important oil supplier to the United States –
Nigeria.

I had my first degree in one of the best universities dated Nigeria independence –
Obafemi Awolowo University, with my second degree from a university predated
independence of the country –University of Ibadan. So what else do I need to learn to
represent my country well at international levels that my education in Nigeria has not
given me and fulfill a wish to study abroad?

The first inkling of an answer to this question came when I started instructing in the
University as an Assistant Lecturer. I conducted tutorials with undergraduate, and
suddenly the need came for somebody to teach a course which is been introduced at that
level - Knowledge Management a division under computing and there was nobody to
take it up.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill) an oil spill in the
Gulf of Mexico which flowed for three months in 2010, the largest accidental marine oil
spill in the history of the petroleum industry which stemmed from a sea-floor oil gusher
that resulted from the April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion set my mind to
question and enquiry on the internet leading me to find out more on Knowledge
Management and its best practices while I was thinking that engineering designs alone
could have averted this disaster in the petroleum industry of which I was wrong. This
gave me a clear answer to what to do with data, organized to generate information and
applied to oil exploration and production.

This is why I have decided to pursue a career further by researching into the area of the
Application of Knowledge Management to Oil and Gas exploration and production,
which is passing unnoticed amidst Nigerian Oil and Gas workers, while the
international community is looking at how best to deploy this disciplines’ best practices
to overcome challenges arising from excessive data management and Information
procession coming from oil wells.

My research area is therefore carefully chosen to enable us in this country to close up

this divide before it will begin to widen up. I am currently a university don and the least
qualification needed to be a researcher is Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in any Nigerian
University, If am therefore given the opportunity to research into this area as it relates
to Oil and Gas it will prepare me as a pioneering personnel in this field of study.

My goal is to be a consultant and to teach Knowledge Management - preferably at

University level- and hopefully be able to convey to my students my own passion for
the subject. The best teachers I have had in my academic career thus far have been those
who’s fascination and love of their own subject has shone through and animated them.

The scholarship will enable me build my capacity through a rigorous study and research
which will expose me to skills, technical know –how and knowledge which will equip
me to become a better faculty at the end of my study. It will also enable me to introduce
this subject in the Universities both as an undergraduate course and ultimately as a post-
graduate course, a Nigerian in this area that could stand shoulder to shoulder with other
international personnel in nearest future in the oil and gas industry in this area.