Our NNPC, Actually Their NNPC, Can Queue Behind Defectors

By Ikeddy ISIGUZO*

ONE cannot muster enough anger to protest the defiance with which whoever gets the apex opportunity to serve Nigeria annexes the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL.

Before the voices of dissent arise, it is important to say that one of how a public company authenticates that it is public is the strong efforts it makes to be accountable.
Some would jump up again to shout that NNPCL reports to the President, and that it is a “private company”. If that is the situation, it merely confirms what has been sheer speculation for a long time – that NNPCL accounts to itself, and to only those who are part of the secrecy on which it runs.
It is their NNPCL. They are offended when we wonder what NNPCL does and for whom.
Details of what happens at NNPCL are scandal-prone and easily lend themselves to rumours. The attitude is to ignore the public. The latest leadership changes at NNPCL have been followed by announcements of arrests, investigations, and billions of Dollars that could have been misappropriated.

The government’s attitude is consistent. The public could shout all it wants and keep quiet when it gets tired.
What matters to the President today is how he becomes President again in 2027. NNPCL is not important to that project in the context that we see Nigeria. How many opposition members join the President’s 2027 campaigns is more important than a Warri refinery that cost almost $700 million, working only for a couple of weeks. It would be imprudent, too, to raise refinery matters before the President when he is celebrating his conquests over the opposition.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is not saying anything about the investigations except information that the public gets through anonymous sources. Are investigations going on? Silence is deemed the best answer for Nigerians on whose behalf government officials hold office. How deep are the holes that we are filling at NNPCL?

Wisdom still resides in the ancient saying that “someone is the owner of what belongs to us”. NNPCL is a perfect example of national ownership that will remain questioned for a very long time.

Let us assume that NNPCL is Nigeria’s national oil company. The assumption would further be that it is accountable to Nigerians. It does that through audited accounts from which we gleaned that in 2023, it made a profit of N3.397 trillion. No applause, please. Less than a week after the financial statement, in September 2024, NNPCL reportedly owed international petroleum products dealers $6.8 billion.
In the era of Presidents being Petroleum Ministers, the President is in charge of NNPCL. He decides who serves, also at his pleasure. President Tinubu is the Minister of Petroleum Resources. Who will the Minister account to? He is the Executive President, though our Constitution provides for a President. He has immunity, and something weightier than immunity, the National Assembly, whose leadership excels in approving anything the President wants with dispatch.

Concerns about NNPCL are mainly muted. If NNPCL is under probe, does it affect the Minister of Petroleum Resources? Who dares probe the President? Under what Constitution would that be executed? We should also remember that it is their NNPCL.

Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum and Mr. Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State for Gas, are just proxies. They cannot decide anything in the industry without consulting the Minister, President Tinubu. Or can they?

Who has forgotten the celebrations staged about the revamping of our refineries? Mele Kyari, then NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “I must congratulate our team for their determination and extreme belief that this company can restart this plant. This has brought the result we are seeing in collaboration with our contractors. We have proved that it is possible to restart a plant that you deliberately shut down. We have proved this.” It is possible that he knew that nobody would congratulate him. Doubts persisted about what had been done.

Of course, the President also joined in congratulating himself. He was abroad then, but took time off his busy schedule to congratulate himself on the achievements in Port Harcourt and Warri refineries. He said Kaduna was next. We should not forget that he is the Minister of Petroleum Resources.
NNPCL, in a statement, on 25 January 2025, admitted, “Operations at WRPC Area 1 were intentionally curtailed to carry out necessary intervention works on select equipment, including field instruments that were impacting sustainable and steady operations. These intervention works are essential to ensure the production of specification finished and intermediate products, particularly Automotive Gas Oil and Kerosine. The routine maintenance is progressing as planned, and Area 1 will be back in operation within the next few days.”
Warri has not worked since then. Port Harcourt is working at under 50 per cent. Kyari departed with his magic; rather, his magic expired before he left office.

President cum Minister of Petroleum Resources has been actively campaigning round the country, or by proxy. He has not had time to visit the monstrosities that are costing Nigeria millions of Dollars in the latest round of repairs. Should we be reminded that as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, the matter is on his table? Is he still congratulating himself for last year’s magic?

Insecurity apart, the foremost challenges before the President should be to get the refineries working, curb the stealing of oil and gas assets, invest in more energy sources with the goals of earning more money to secure Nigerians, halt rising prices, reduce costs of production, create more jobs, and make food, and improved health services accessible to Nigerians at affordable prices. Increases in prices of petroleum prices trigger off increases in prices of everything, even the cost of dying.
His second-term campaign is running fairly well, perhaps better than he expected. Can the President take a breather and look at the directionless journey of Nigeria? Can he take some time off the noise and listen to ordinary Nigerians who daily are pulling on their last string of hope?
President Tinubu has work to do. He has not started.

There must be more to Nigeria than elections, defections, 2027, second term. Only the President can tell us what is left of his Nigeria without these evaporating phases that would be gone in a matter of years.

•ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues