By Olufemi Adegbulugbe
I seriously weep for Nigeria following the news of the reappointment of Mele Kyari as NNPCL GCEO and Pius Akinyelure as Board Chairman.
Nigeria is now clearly a private enterprise as we all sit back and watch helplessly.
It is a very sad development.
The politics of reward and entitlement has now also been extended to NNPCL board appointments.
Following the passage of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), NNPC became a limited company, with the Federal Ministry of Finance as a shareholder, if i am not mistaken.
NNPCL by its new identity should be free from political board appointments and appointments of reward and entitlement.
We expected the new NNPCL board to be constituted by Nigeria top notch oil and gas industry technocrats based on competence and industry experience.
I expected to see Nigerians like Andrew Gould of Schlumberger or Leonard SimCoe of Baker Hughes lead the new NNPC.
Hundreds of Nigerians with solid industry experience work for multinationals like Schlumberger, Exxon Mobil, Saudi Aramco, Chevron in positions as Exploration Managers, Vice Presidents and Country Managers, managing annual budgets in excess of our Federal budget.
These are the people we need to drive the vision of a new NNPC called NNPCL.
Unfortunately, the new list of NNPCL board is far below expectations. Tinubu has abused his position by using sensitive appointments to establish a Tinubu Empire in Nigeria.
Chief Pius Akinyelure, a buddy of Tinubu at Exxon Mobil was first appointed NNPC board member in 2016 based on nomination by Tinubu to represent the SW.
Pius Akinyelure has since 2016 maintained a permanent seat on NNPC board as he was reappointed in 2020 based on the Tinubu-Akinyelure connection. It is important to note that Akinyelure was also APC Vice Chairman, a purely political position.
Today, Tinubu has elevated Pius Akinyelure to the position of NNPCL board Chairman.
Tinubu also reappointed Mele Kyari as NNPCL GCEO.
Under the watch of both Pius Akinyelure and Mele Kyari, not a single litre of PMS was produced by 3 NNPC refineries as Nigeria spent trillion of PMS importation and subsidy payment.
The question to ask is what is the accomplishment of both Kyari and Akinyelure to deserve these reappointments and promotions.
Mele Kyari does not deserve to occupy the position of NNPCL GCEO based on his acts of dishonesty, using his position to collaborate with Government in the secret payments of pms subsidies.
A look at Chief Akinyelure CV highlights his experience as an accountant with no oil and Gas industry technical expertise or experience in managing cross functional units of large corporations such as NNPC. A CV loaded with management of multiple failes private businesses.
In the history of Nigeria, we have never seen such brazen and open exhibition of politics of reward, entitlement and nepotism by any President, not even President Buhari.
In 6 months of Tinubu Presidency, all that came out of the Presidency is announcements of appointments and reappointments, the sharing and partitioning of Nigeria common wealth and the establishment of a dynasty, an empire that will be difficult to dismantle, as 200 million Nigerians watch helplessly.
No concrete policy statements, vision and mission statement or a clear definition of a roadmap for 2023-2027. It has just been the announcement of one position after another.
Under Tinubu, we have seen appointment of Minister of Power who do not know that electricity is generated through the movement of a coil and magnet.
We have seen appointments of persons that will approve billions of dollars for projects but do not know the definition of a project. (a temporary endeavour with a start and end date with unique outcomes (service, product or deliverables).)
Nigeria cannot continue like this and for this reason, I WEEP for NIGERIA.
I will continue to speak my mind. I am not unaware of the great risk of speaking truth in Nigeria.
I will go to Aba, Akure, Abaji and Abuja and tell my people the truth regarding the state of our Nation today.
IF i perish, i perish.
Esther 4 vs 16
# olufemiadegbulugbe
