There are strong indications that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the driving force behind the ongoing investigations of past leadership of the NNPCL, based on several official reports and private briefings that he had received, especially in the last 23 months of his assumption of office, Empowered Newswire reports.
A source who spoke directly to the President over the matter confirmed to Empowered Newswire at the weekend that “Mr. President had made it clear that there is no way the federal government under his watch would not have to find out about many of the well-known mismanagement and misappropriation of resources and funds in the NNPC. I will certainly deal with them.”
The source added that the President came to the alarming knowledge of some of the deep-rooted corruption in the nation’s oil company much earlier and determined that cleaning up would be done, but he was held down by a few of his close allies who felt a new board under the leadership of Chief Pius Akinyelure would need a bit of more time to get the job done.
The President had other options when he announced the Pius Akinyelure board for the NNPCL but he was inclined to take the decision considering Akinyelure’s own experience in the Oil and Gas sector.
Besides the former top leadership of the NNPCL also promised the President to ensure the revival of some of the publicly owned refineries and requested time to deliver.
But another set of close associates of the President led by Prince Dipo Eludoyin, who is also known as a close business ally to the President argued that the he (the President) should change the executive leadership of the NNPCL first before expecting to achieve any significant reform of the way and manner of systemic corruption in the NNPC.
Empowered Newswire can report that the Eludoyin group prevailed and headhunted the new NNPCL leadership for the President. And while the change in the NNPCL baton took a while for the President to effect was because the Akinyelure board strove worked with the Mele Kolo Kyari executive leadership to get the refineries going again and bided the President for time.
But the President, according to his very close associates, decided against further delay in initiating the investigation and brought the new leadership in to take over and start a comprehensive reform of the company just before he embarked on his last retreat visit to Paris.
The change was announced on April 2 last month in the middle of the night by Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the presidential spokesperson.
According to a Presidential insider “the President sent a clear signal he was fed up with the changing stories, up today, down tomorrow tales about the effective rehabilitation of the refineries and even if it meant he had to ask his long time ally-Akinyelure to go, he did it and served notice generally that he was determined to make an headway not only with the NNPCL but with his entire administration and there would be no sacred cows.”
Another source added that ” no sooner the Ojulari team resumed, he-the new GCEO- had to quickly travel to meet the President who was then in London on the immediate plans to shake up the oil company, report on his initial findings and seek approval for the reform.”
It was added the President gave his quick endorsement of the plan and asked that the refineries rehabilitation project be deepened way beyond the immediate past leadership of NNPCL.
It would be recalled President Tinubu also handed out an immediate action plan to the new board when the new leadership was announced.
According to Mr. Onanuga this included to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives.
Onanuga added that “since 2023, the Tinubu administration has implemented oil sector reforms to attract investment. Last year, NNPC reported $17 billion in new investments within the sector. The administration now envisions increasing the investment to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.
“The Tinubu administration targets raising oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million daily by 2030. Concurrently, the government wants gas production jacked to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030.
“Furthermore, President Tinubu expects the new board to elevate NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and reach 500,000 by 2030.