By Kunle Badmos
Is the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited fated to endure unending but unfounded attacks on its integrity? Again, primordial allegations against the oil behemoth have been dredged up. In the last one year, there have been unremitting but unfounded allegations of wrongdoing by the management of the NNPC Ltd.
The latest in the series is the allegation by former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, of non-remittance of money (dollars) into the Federation Account and opacity in the operations of the NNPC. He also described the national oil company as the most opaque oil organisation in the world. These allegations are not exactly new but are a rehash of the same accusation he levelled against the NNPC 10 years ago. Then, Sanusi had accused the NNPC of withholding over $49bn which he said ought to have been paid into government coffers.
The Federal Government, then headed by Dr Goodluck Jonathan, insisted Sanusi got it all wrong. The NNPC itself held that even as CBN governor, Sanusi did not have a proper grasp of how the process of remittance to the treasury worked.
This was shown to be the case after the reconciliation of figures with relevant agencies of government. It was discovered that the balance of unremitted oil revenue was actually the amount spent by the NNPC on its operations in accordance with the then extant law, the NNPC Act. Despite this evidence, Sanusi kept insisting funds were missing, banding different figures like $10.8bn and $12bn before finally settling for $20bn. The former Emir of Kano’s continued insistence on missing funds forced the Senate to investigate the allegation and eventually cleared the NNPC of any wrongdoing.
As a matter of fact, Sanusi in his capacity as CBN Governor attended hearings of the Senate Committee on Finance where the issue of kerosene subsidy was exhaustively looked at vis-à-vis the Presidential Memo directing the removal of kerosene subsidy. The explanation was that the process of implementing the presidential directive was not followed through by the Minister of Petroleum Resources at that time as required by law which technically meant that kerosene subsidy was not removed.
It was on the basis of this that the Senate Committee on Finance, led by Ahmed Makarfi, in its report, recommended that the executive should prepare and present to the National Assembly a supplementary budget ‘to cover the expenditure in the sum of N90.6bn for Premium Motor Spirit subsidy 2012 and N685.9bn for kerosene subsidy expended without appropriation by the National Assembly.
Even the reputable auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, cleared the NNPC of misappropriation of funds. The company observed in a forensic audit report that: “Regarding the issue of subsidy on DPK (kerosene), the presidential directive of October 19, 2009, was not gazetted and there is no other legal instrument cancelling the subsidy on DPK. The Senate committee had also concluded that all that was now required was for the Federal Government to propose appropriation for the unappropriated subsidy for the period in a supplemental budget.”
So why the former CBN governor is rehashing these allegations, which after diligent scrutiny and investigation by internationally recognised entities, were found to be baseless, is anybody’s guess. The allegations fly in the face of recent salutary developments that have taken place in the company.
For observers of events in the Nigerian oil sector, there can be no argument that the NNPC is the most investigated business entity in Nigeria. Beginning four decades ago when in 1979, the Justice Ayo Irikefe Panel of Inquiry set up to investigate an alleged missing N2.8bn oil money returned a verdict of not guilty on the NNPC, the company has undergone several investigations and audits including the ones by the Senate and PwC mentioned above, and has not being found culpable for any infraction.
Now to Sanusi’s allegation of opacity in the operations of the NNPC, there is abundant evidence to show that he is on shaky ground. If he had diligently followed developments in the last four years since Kyari has presided over the affairs of the NNPC, he would have noticed a level of transparency in the running of the company not seen since it was established over 40 years ago.
In fact, one of Kyari’s first acts in office was to unveil his “roadmap to excellence” anchored on the TAPE agenda. TAPE itself stands for transparency, accountability and performance excellence. This has remained the defining rubric of his leadership of the NNPC and has underpinned the successes he has recorded in the last four years.
One of the key gains of the TAPE agenda is the entrenchment of global best practices within the NNPC, leading to a transformation of administrative and technical processes. It was thus not surprising that in September 2021, Kyari presented to Nigerians for the first time in 44 years, an audited report of the finances of the NNPC for 2020. The bonus was the fact that the company posted a profit of N287bn to bring to an end decades of losses suffered by the organisation.
Beyond running the company on sound and globally recognised and acclaimed management principles, Kyari has repositioned the NNPC as one of the leading oil companies in the world. In addition, he has used his position as helmsman of the company to tackle key challenges confronting the Nigerian economy. One of these is the vexed question of crude oil theft, which has challenged successive governments in Nigeria since the country’s return to representative democracy in 1999. It is on record that the NNPC under Kyari’s leadership designed the “Crude Theft Monitoring Application”, which has options for reporting incidents, with prompt follow-up and responses, and another for crude sales documents validation.
Prior to the launch of the application, Kyari had taken leading officials of the Nigerian government in the Muhammadu Buhari administration including the then Minister of Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva; then Chief of Defence Staff of the Nigerian military, Gen. Lucky Irabor; and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, to the Niger Delta creeks to tackle the menace of oil theft. His effort paid off as a four-kilometre illegal oil connection line from the Forcados Terminal into the sea where for nine years criminals had been siphoning Nigeria’s oil, was discovered.
Success achieved in this regard proved pivotal as Q4 figures released by the NNPC showed a spike in the country’s oil production level, which rose to 1.6 million barrels from the erstwhile figure of 1.2 million, a development that helped Nigeria regain its position as Africa’s largest producer ahead of Algeria (1.021mb/d) and Angola (1.088 mb/d).
In addition to these strides, the NNPC was able to resolve years-long dispute with its business partners, especially the international oil companies. As part of its determination to boost the country’s production of crude and unlock investments in the deepwater space, the Kyari-led NNPC signed different production-sharing contracts and other agreements, including Dispute Settlement Agreements and Escrow Agreement that would produce about 10 billion barrels of crude and over $500bn in revenue.
In addition, the NNPC has also been able to pay Nigeria’s Joint Cash Call arrears to the IOCs to the tune of $5bn through the introduction of the alternative funding approach, which has replaced the former cash call payment system. Furthermore, beyond the shores of Nigeria, the NNPC Ltd has signed Memoranda of Association with countries like Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, as part of the 5,600 kilometres Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project traversing these countries and seven others including Togo, Benin, Liberia, Cote d’ Ivoire, Mauritania and Senegal. The project, when completed will supply about 3 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (3bscf/d) from Nigeria to Morocco and then to Europe.
Also in 2022, the NNPC Ltd secured a $1.4bn external project finance agreement for hydrocarbon projects in the Niger Delta. This is in addition to acquiring the OVH Energy Marketing, owner and operator of Oando downstream assets.
Clearly, these achievements could not have been without the clear road map driven by the TAPE strategy Kyari put in place at the NNPC. It is a no-brainer that no organisation no matter how desperate it is for partnership will do business with an opaque organisation of the kind described by Sanusi. That old NNPC has been buried with the coming of the Kyari-led management. In its place is an organisation driven by a determination to outperform its local and international competitors through entrenching world-class standards for qualitative service delivery.
Badmos, a public commentator, writes from Abuja
