President Tinubu not only retained Kyari he inherited from the Buhari administration but went ahead to renew his appointment in November 2023 with the composition of a new board for the NNPCL which has Chief Pius Akinyelure as its chairman in line with Section 59 (2) of the PIA. The new board also has other key officers of the company as Umar Isa Ajiya, chief financial officer; Ledum Mitee, Musa Tumsa, Ghali Muhammad, Mustapha Aliyu, David Ogbodo and Eunice Thomas as non-executive directors.
AT inception in 2019, Kyari had promised to lift the fortunes of the corporation with his plans for Upstream, Gas Development, Downstream, Refineries Rehabilitation, Transparency and Stakeholders Engagement which he has pursued to the best of his ability. For instance, the crude oil production has risen to 1.7million barrels per day since September 2023 returning Nigeria as the largest crude oil producer in Africa ahead of Angola with 1.088 million bpd and Algeria with 1.021 million bpd. Part of Kyari’s credit is the monthly publication of the company’s financial and operation reports.
IN spite of the above and other achievements Kyari has claimed, the fuel situation in the country, the end product for the common man has continued to grow worse. For a long time, it is doubtful if Nigerians know the quantity of crude produced per day and the revenue is shrouded in secrecy. The issue between NNPCL and Dangote Refinery is another factor. If Dangote has taken a step to bail us, why is it difficult for NNPCL to supply the private refinery such that Dangote has to resort to importation?Why has it been difficult for NNPCL to end the nationwide queues?Why do we have disparity in pump prices? Why have Nigerians been perpetually thrown into hardship and seeming exploitation by marketers who sell the pump price between N750 and N1,000 while it is only NNPC stations that sell at N580 and the stations cannot meet the buyers demand? With all these, we believe Mele Kyari has outlived his usefulness and the time to quit or be replaced is now.
THE recent and ongoing probe of the NNPCL by the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee led the Majority Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele attests to the fact that all is not well with the sector. The panel investigating the alleged economic sabotage and the importation of toxic fuels in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry have the following as terms of reference: to examine the pre-shipment and pre-discharge standard test parameters adopted by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority to uncover loopholes, if any, being exploited to get toxic cargoes into the country; to determine the level of compliance of the NNPCL’s Direct Sale and Direct Purchase (DSP) arrangements in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act, including the extent of transparency and accountability in the industry; to Beam legislative searchlight on the activities of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), including payments made to transporters in the last 10 years; to enquire from the NNPCL the state/status of the 22 depots built by the defunct NNPC to eliminate road distribution of petroleum products; and to engage with stakeholders within the oil and gas industry to identify possible gaps in regulating and strengthening the surveillance and monitoring structures in place to enable Nigeria to detect violations of best practice standards in the importation of products before they enter into the domestic supply chains.
We urge the National Assembly to take the probe seriously and conduct its affairs transparently with a view to bringing sanity to the industry. Our economy thrives on small scale businesses (at least 60 percent) and these thrive on petrol. Until we solve petrol problem, the economy cannot improve. Why are our refineries not coming on board despite huge amount sunk into them? The refineries should be privatised, since government, through the NNPCL has proven incapable of managing them. For the umpteenth time, we dare say that KYARI MUST GO.
CHARACTERISTIC of Nigerians and Africans’ attitude of sit tight in office even when they have outlived their usefulness, the continued stay of MeleKyari as the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), is now more of a disservice to the country. This is because, in our firm opinion, the oil sector under his watch, in the estimation of most citizens, rather than improve has been on decline.
KYARI was appointed the 19th Group Managing Director of the defunct Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by the Muhammadu Buhari administration following the retirement of Maikanti Baru, his predecessor on July 7, 2019. The NNPC transmuted into the NNPCL following the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in August 2021 thus empowering it to operate as a private company. To avoid bureaucracy and excuses for failure, the new company, under the Act, was exempted from the Fiscal Responsibility Act, Public Procurement Act, and Treasury Single Account (TSA)