A group, Coalition of Civil Society for Transparency and Accountability, have again asked President Bola Tinubu to relieve the management team of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as a step to repositioning the organisation to play its lead role in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
The group, insisted that it is only reasonable to relieve Mr. Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC and his management team following series of allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Addressing newsmen on Friday in Abuja, the CSO’s led by the Convener Empowerment for Unemployed Youth Initiative, Comrade Danesi Momoh, Convener Guardians of Democracy and Development Initiative (GoDDI), Comrade Igwe Ude-Umanta and Convener Independent Public Accountability Watch, Mallam Suleima Musa, warned that the poor and corrupt management of the NNPCL would only increase the hardship and tension currently being witnessed in the country.
Momoh who questioned why the Presidency and National Assembly were pretending they were not aware of the gross incompetence and corruption at the NNPC Limited, warned that the next nationwide protest would commence from the premises of the NNPC Limited if a total overhaul of the management staff was not carried out soonest.
According to him, President Tinubu’s failure to address the consistent demands for Kyari’s sack as the GCEO NNPC Limited over allegations of corruption, opaqueness, ineptitude and deceit, only poses more questions and concerns on his Renewed Hope Agenda.
He said: “We ask President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to as a matter of dire urgency sack the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Mr. Mele Kyari and his team of allegedly corrupt, very incompetent and deceitful management team. The time is now. The chickens have finally come home to roost. Mr. President must rise to this urgent occasion.
“Recall that last year, we consistently called for the sack of Mr Kyari. We addressed the media more than 5 times, detailing our reasons. We wrote to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu twice, categorically telling him that the Nigerian economy will not move an inch and the petroleum sector will remain a mess with a Mr Kyari. Perhaps our letters were blocked or Mr President was misinformed. But now, if after years of motion without movement, Mr President still believes or hopes that the NNPCL management team led by Mele Kyari can offer anything other than continuous allegations of corruption, opaqueness, ineptitude and deceit, then we should worry for Mr President and his Renewed Hope Agenda.
“When we addressed a Press Conference on August 2, 2023 asking Mr. President to sack Mele Kyari, we were clear with the issues and our facts. We had amongst other things told Mr President that the removal of petroleum subsidy was not the only issue, but that the poor and corrupt management of the NNPCL will worsen things and increase hardship and tension. Today, we are already where we forewarned and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must take full responsibility for re-appointing a failed GCEO of the foremost Nigerian oil company and allowing him to remain there without any clear value addition.
“Again on August 8, 2023, in response to Kyari’s cheap campaign of calumny against our coalition, we addressed another Press Conference in which we challenged him to reveal the actual cost of the unending maintenance of the NNPCL refineries and give an accurate date and timeline for the operation of those refineries. We also requested for public knowledge and consumption, his Energy Transition Plan. One clear year after, we remain in this abysmal era of tales of corruption, lack of transparency and total rudderless in the moving forward the Petroleum Sector.
“How else are we supposed to rate or view the scorecard of a man that vowed on assumption of office that the four (4) national refineries will be operational latest in 2023; and at the end of 2024, not even one (1) is working? What stories do they tell? NNPCL is not African Writers Series where the best of African fictions were produced. It is a company that should lead transformation and speedy development of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. But in place of any measurable success, what the country gets are ugly tales.
“When we campaigned for the removal of Kyari last year, we knew that he and his cartel are powerful to counter our patriotic stand. But we wanted to keep the records straight and be on the positive side of posterity. Today, that history is before us and posterity beckons.
“It is interesting that people are now rising up to ask questions. Both Chambers of the National Assembly have at least recognised clearly that the NNPCL is off our compass of national development. That company stinks to high heavens and the institutions that are supposed to sanitize it, particularly the National Assembly and Mr President pretended not to perceive the stench. It is actually a shame.
“Nigerians are not foolish people. So we understand the meaning of the response: “we are not criminals. We are not thieves…” Mr Kyari, simply went to Senate to confirm what the world already knows. It is only a thief that will start his defence by denying being a thief, when the question was not whether the person was a thief or not. The question was: “what is going on in your company?” And the answered was “we are not thieves…” It could have been strange if Nigerians did not know. So it is no longer strange to us. But it is pathetic!
