Angst trails Kyari’s continued stay in office amid scarcity, high cost of fuel

BY TUNDE OPALANA

As reactions continue to trail the high of cost of fuel and its scarcity, some Nigerians and stakeholders in the oil and gas industry have expressed their feelings regarding Mele Kyari’s continued stay in office as the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja on Friday, the Presidential candidate of the National Rescue Movement, NRM in the 2023 general election, Felix Osakwe, expressed disappointment over the high cost of fuel occasioned by the inefficiency of the NNPCL and those handling the affairs of oil and gas industry.

Osakwe said, the economic hardship Nigerians are passing through and the lack of empathy and solidarity from government has shown the depth of government’s failure, stressing that the cost of transportation as a result of the high cost of fuel has further eroded the essence of democracy.

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He however, said, Mele Kyari should not be solely held accountable for the economic hardship, but President Bola Tinubu should, given that he is the Minister of Petroleum while Mele Kyari takes instruction from him.

Osakwe said: “Not only Engr. Mele Kyari is the problem of Nigeria’s oil sector, the President who is acting as the Minister of Petroleum is also part of the problem because Kyari who is the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer cannot do anything without approval of Tinubu who is the Minister.

“You know this government is not doing anything right and they are not listening to the voice of reason. I don’t know what they really want in this country. We do not know where we are right now and everybody knows that things are not good. The earlier Mr President sits down and looks at every aspect of life, the better.”

The politician wondered what was off the sleeves of the GMD and the President that they would hardly dismantle the NNPCL management under the worst circumstances in the oil and gas sector that Nigeria found itself in.

According to him, those voices out there calling for the removal of the NNPCL GMD are right, but expressed doubt if the president would do that given that there may be a bond between them which Nigerians were yet to know.

“Even during the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure, both Mele Kyari and Buhari knew what they were doing. Only God knows what they were doing, but Nigerians didn’t.

“How will a President of a country designate himself as the Minister of Petroleum? Out of 200 million Nigerians, he did not trust anyone to occupy the position.as Minister of Petroleum? Even can’t the president pick his son as Minister of petroleum? There is something that Nigerians do not know. There is a lot of conspiracy going on in that place we don’t know which has led to our suffering.”

He berated the NNPCL for attempting to discredit Dangote Refinery over comment that the fuel was of low standard.

Osakwe queried reasons the official of NNPCL who made the foul comment was not punished, stressing that the NNPCL under Mele Kyari remained a disaster to the economy.

“The other time, a general manager in NNPCL declared that Dangote oil is not good. The official came out openly on national television to say the fuel is not good, the diesel is not good. They did not reprimand the official for misleading Nigerians and nobody can talk about that.

In his opinion, Barrister Odemwige Osaro, a Lagos based oil and gas consultant submitted that Mele Kyari’s continued stay in office after five years was against the consciences of Nigerians, given that there was value attached to the oil sector since 2019 of his appointment as the GMD/CEO of NNPCL.

According to him, Kyari remains adviser to the president on oil and gas matters at the upstream and downstream sector despite that he takes instruction from him. As at the time the GMD was appointed by the former President Muhammadu Buhari on 20th June, 2019, the cost of premium motor spirit (petrol) pump price was N145.48 with retailing arrangement solely controlled by the NNPC.

Stating that the narrative has changed into a sad story within a space of five years under the present management at the NNPCL, wondering what President Tinubu was waiting for to have left the structure till now.

He maintained: “Engr Kyari has outlived his value in office and his continued stay is simply against the consciences of the suffering Nigerians. This I can bet you.

“He was the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointee who was appointed when a pump price of petroleum was N145.48 and within a space of five years, the price has risen to nearly N1,000 per litre”, he said;

It is also recalled that lawmakers in the lower legislative chamber operating under the aegis of The Economy Rescue Group, called for the resignation of the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari.

The group argued that the NNPCL under the leadership of Kyari had been mismanaged, hence, Nigerians and the President Tinubu government are at the receiving end.

The leader of the group, Rep. Esosa Iyawe in a statement he made available to journalists recommended the suspension of Mele Kyari to the Joint House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream and Midstream) for thorough investigation into the government owned NNPCL and across all oil and gas subsectors.

Esosa Iyawe who represents Oredo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives alleged that the Kyari-led NNPCL management was undermining Tinubu-led administration, hence, Nigerians are making jest of the ‘Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.’

The group in the statement was of the opinion that Kyari and his management team should be sacked to allow investigation into the activities of NNPCL to avoid further economic sabotage.

They cited the presence of cronies in trading, indiscriminate issuance of licences, unavailability of laboratories to check adulterated products, and the influx of adulterated products into the country, as reasons the team should be flushed out to enable the oil and gas sector to move forward.

The statement partly read: “We, the 15 concerned lawmakers, state unequivocally that the woes of the oil and gas sector in the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration are caused mainly by the failures and mismanagement of the NNPCL under Kyari’s management. Therefore, to resolve these issues, they should resign.

“In the event they fail to step down on their own, the President should not hesitate to suspend them pending the investigation conducted by the House of Representatives through its joint Committee on Petroleum: Downstream and Midstream.

“The petroleum sector remains the backbone of the nation’s economy, and the allegations uncovered by the House, which necessitated the forensic investigation, are astounding.’

The lawmakers further argued that the unavailability of fuel, PMS pump price intervention, endless shifting of timelines for refinery rehabilitation, the nefarious activities at petrol depots which have affected product distribution and caused scarcity, and the use of middlemen in trading which has negatively affected domestic crude supply, are reasons the NNPCL should be sanitized.

However, the National Chairman of Democratic Peoples Congress, DPC, Rev. Olusegun Peters absolved Mele Kyari of any blame over the woes Nigerians are passing through, stating that the full deregulation of the oil and gas sector should be allowed to run its full course.

According to him, the government should not allow one man to monopolise the sector, so that there could be healthy competition, particularly at the downstream sector of the oil and gas, adding that it was only the high level competition that could force the cost of fuel down and not about Mele Kyari.

“He said, left for me, Mele Kyari is not the problem and nobody should be allowed to monopolise the supply of fuel and that is what the NNPCL is trying to do that they are incurring the wrath of Nigerians in certain quarters.

“When they are talking about Dangote, let the NNPCL remove all bottlenecks within the oil sector and allow other persons to come in to carry out activities of oil and from there, more people will come up with their own businesses that will make the fuel cheaper than what it is now.”