By Tunji Adegboyega
Welcome Ojulari. But we are tired of stories on NNPCL. We now want testimonies.
Was Mele Kyari, the immediate past group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) Ltd,. fired by President Bola Tinubu? Was he not? Well, since the government itself did not expressly say he was fired, some Nigerians have chosen not to say he was fired. I therefore stand on that existing protocol.
But that is without prejudice to what I know, to wit: that, as a civil servant, the man ought to have left office by January 8, when he clocked 60, in line with civil service rules and regulations. But he did not. And we were not told that he had tenure extension. As a matter of fact, he ordinarily ought to have proceeded on pre-retirement leave some months before.
I also know that it took an official release from the government to announce his replacement as well as reconstitution of the company’s board.
Kyari, as far as I am concerned (and I guess I am speaking the minds of millions of Nigerians) had outlived his usefulness in that capacity a long time ago. That President Tinubu kept him for this long is part of the mystique of government.
At this juncture, permit me to extensively quote my thoughts on the man, as published in my column of September 15, 2024, titled” At last, Dangote petrol”.
Olawale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy in September last year announced Dangote Refinery’s coming on board:
“From October 1, NNPC Ltd. will commence the supply of about 385kbpd of crude oil to the Dangote Refinery, to be paid for in Naira. In return, the Dangote Refinery will supply PMS and diesel of equivalent value to the domestic market, to be paid in Naira. “Diesel will be sold in Naira by the Dangote Refinery to any interested off-taker. PMS will only be sold to NNPC, NNPC will then sell to various marketers for now,” he said.
“This, however, is my worry. I am sure millions of Nigerians must also be wary of this role assigned this company whose incompetence should qualify it for a space in the ‘Guinness World Records’. A company that tells you good morning when in actual fact it should be good night. A company that says it has sufficient stock of petrol to last for ages even when fuel queues have blocked all major roads in the country! NNPCL! Ha!
“How the company would be happy that a private concern succeeded in doing what it could not do in decades — ensure its refineries produce fuel for Nigerians, and then cooperate with that private concern — is yet to be seen. And, even if NNPCL must be involved, why under the same incompetent management? People who had spent billions of dollars turning around refineries that have refused to turn around? People who should ensure we refine petroleum products as a major crude producer but have found the job of importing the products more lucrative?
“I said it several times in the Muhammadu Buhari era that most of his cabinet ministers got the original of whatever spell they used on their principal that made him retain them and their incompetence until the very end when they all fumbled and wobbled out of government.
“If there is any such spell that Kyari, the group managing director/chief executive officer of NNPCL and his team are using on the present government, I destroy it with Holy Ghost fire!
“For me, Kyari has outlived his usefulness in that capacity and ought to have left that seat as early as yesterday. The Bola Tinubu government should do Nigerians the noble service of asking Kyari and his team to go home and rest.”
I am not done yet: “A friend of mine usually tells us that somebody who eats stockfish and does not pick his teeth would never pay his debt. Something must be wrong with our oil industry managers, as exemplified by Kyari and the others, who don’t feel ashamed in the midst of their peers at international oil fora, that they are importing refined petroleum products despite being a major crude producer. With men like these, who feel comfortable in such company, we cannot make progress in that vital sector.”
Those were my thoughts on this same page six months ago. I stand by them, largely.
But thank God, Kyari has now gone in peace. God has finally answered my prayer that Holy Ghost fire should annul whatever spell he had cast on the president (if any) because the president could have extended his tenure and some people would still have justified it.
However, for whatever it is worth, we have to credit Kyari for revamping the moribund Port Harcourt Refinery. Many people may be saying it is not the entire facility that is working despite the success and the humongous cost that the country committed to the revamping. This is true. But then, that we are now lifting some products, including petrol, from the refinery years after it had been dormant should still count for something.
Even my personal belief that the refinery would still not have worked if President Buhari had remained in power remains what it is in spite of available ‘circumstantial evidence’ — mere conjecture! The fact on ground as at today is that the refinery has been in production in the last four months. That is some progress and kudos to Kyari for that.
But, what I am saying is that given Kyari’s length of service in the industry, he ought to have understood the system, the global nature of the sector and how to truly reposition NNPCL as a force to reckon with in the comity of oil-producing countries.
Energy Reforms Advocates (ERA), an energy advocacy group, in its reaction to Kyari’s exit commended President Tinubu’s decision. It described it as a courageous step toward reforming Nigeria’s oil sector and tackling entrenched corruption.
A statement by ERA’s president Abdulkadri Isah, on Wednesday, barely a few hours after the announcement of Kyari’s exit said “The probe into fake refinery projects must be swift and thorough. Nigerians deserve to know how billions of dollars were allocated to non-existent or uncompleted projects while the country continued to rely on fuel imports,” he stated.
But, true, beyond commending the president over Kyari’s exit, there is a need to probe his tenure. As a matter of fact, people had been calling for this long before now. Indeed, such probe should be a routine in the company, and especially when a chief executive is leaving. The kind of opacity that enveloped NNPCL’s accounts during Kyari’s tenure justifies the calls for probe. NNPCL handles a lot of money, the bulk of which was believed to have escaped scrutiny in the Kyari years.
We also have turn-around maintenance projects that were handled under his watch which did not yield results. That should however be a project for the relevant government agencies.
For me, the Bayo Ojulari-led NNPCL already has its job cut out for it. One of its immediate concerns should be how to resume the naira-for-crude arrangement that expired last month-end and which Kyari did not seem keen on renewing. In spite of its imperfections, naira-for-crude was partly successful in reducing fuel prices. And, to that extent, it was rekindling the people’s hope that subsidy withdrawal was truly the way to go. This is not the kind of policy to stop abruptly, especially given where we are coming from. If government removed subsidy, it should not simultaneously stop what seems a soothing balm of hope to it.
Discerning Nigerians must have known, as I argued in my September 15, 2024 piece that Kyari cannot understand local refining of crude because, for the most part of his time in NNPC, all they knew was the template of importation of petroleum products. As a matter of fact, some people would argue that Kyari would never have wished for stoppage of fuel importation, for reasons they did not seem to be able to substantiate. But what is also incontestable is the fact that Kyari’s body language seemed to support the belief that he is more comfy with importation. Hence, he would not be in a hurry to renew the naira-for-crude deal.
I stumbled on the humongous amounts that this country still spent importing fuel even after Dangote Refinery and Port Harcourt Refinery as well as others have started or resumed production and I couldn’t but keep asking why things hardly work to plan in this country.
This was not what we bargained for before these refineries took off.
I know the Muhammadu Buhari administration had sold some of our crude upfront and we therefore do not have enough for the local refineries to meet our demand. I know we may have to import fuel to engender competition, especially to prevent one or two major players from hijacking the market and all that. But the figure of the forex we coughed up within so short a period, and despite the availability of more functional refineries is staggering. It is unfortunate I couldn’t just lay my hands on it as at the time of concluding this piece, otherwise, we would weep for the country where things we hope to give us joy usually end up delivering melancholy.
Ojulari and his team should quickly look into whatever was wrong with the naira-for-crude deal, with a view to resuming it. Reforms are embarked upon for the ultimate benefit of people, not for dead bodies.
Enough on Kyari.
In terms of qualifications, Ojulari fits the bill. In terms of experience and exposure, he appears spot-on. But sometimes these alone are not enough. I heard him saying at the handing over ceremony something like he would continue where his predecessor stopped. I hope that was mere political statement as he also quickly added that he looked forward to taking the company to the next level. They are not exactly the same thing o.
Taking NNPCL to the next level is not just the government ‘s expectation from him and his team, it is also what Nigerians expect.
We expect to see an NNPCL that would aspire and indeed take steps to do what its successful contemporaries are doing all over the world, that are fetching their owners cool money for developmental purposes. We look forward to seeing a truly improved and credible NNPCL that would tell us it is noon and we don’t have to bother to confirm. We want an NNPCL that its account record would be open to scrutiny.
We are tired of stories concerning NNPCL. Ojulari, we now want testimonies.
I congratulate and welcome you to the hot seat that you are now privileged to sit on. It is a seat many would fall over themselves to sit on, despite its hotness. So, you are lucky to be sitting on it today. Heard of good problem? Yours is one.
Once again, congratulations. But remember: “oju la ri, ore o de ‘nu o.
Culled from The Nation
