As the saying goes,nothing comes easy, the records attained by the Group Managing Director(GMD) of the defunct, Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) now the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NNPC Limited didn’t come easy.
It came through decades of dedicated, meritorious service to Nigeria within and outside the country at various capacities.
From his first job as a field Geologist to Nigeria’s representative in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Cartel which determines what goes on in the global stage as regards Petroleum production, trade and it’s associated political and economic drive, it has been a story of success.
When he assumed as the GMD of the defunct NNPC, the man inherited a state owned company challenges by administrative, political and economic challenges and a cash cow for selected few.
With that opportunity, he began to take the Bull by the horn by bringing every reform that will put the company on the path of growth and a transparent entity that will take it’s place in the economic drive of the nation to yank off the yoke of decades of retarded growth.
The passage of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), a legislation, so crucial to undertake the needed reforms, provided Kyari with almost everything he needs to transform the NNPC to a commercialized entity with various organs set for a participatory venture for all Nigerians. The rest they say, is history. A new child was born, named NNPC Ltd.
However, in the course of undertaking his reforms, Kyari stepped on toes, sore-toes that are painful to the owners, a Cabal in the oil sector who wants the Status Quo maintained or want him axed out.
But, the man had since inception damned the consequences and was ready for them at every turn as they used every avenue, every attack dog and we’ll funded warchest to fight and discredit him.
They latch at every manufactured lie, every honest attempt by the legislature to investigate issues regarding the defunct NNPC or the NNPC Limited.
The recent attempts to make a scapegoat out of a man who brought about the most significant transformation in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is no surprising.
It is a thing which some people have vowed to pursue no matter what or how long it takes.
These individuals, groups and entities whose Oxes were gored by the reforms carried out by Kyari, are shadowy elements, engaged in every unholy activity in our oil sector which held it down in the past decades since the discovery and drilling of the first oil well at Oloibiri in present day Bayelsa State.
The transformation of NNPC to NNPC Limited has in many ways stopped their activities which bring to them billions in illegal funds which feed their greed at the expense of Nigerians.
It has brought in investors who will not allow the Cabal take a Kobo worth of Crude or refined products through organised bunkering and organised theft syndicate in the Creeks, along export pipelines or in the corridors of offices to execute their evil plans. Hence the anger against Kyari, who they vowed to bring down at all cost.
These Cabals are oblivious of the fact that, success speaks for the man that attained it. It will be a futile attempt by anybody to entinguished the light surrounding Kyari, the accolades he got over the years in a distinguished, professional career.
His achievements need not to be repeated here as they are everywhere to be seen. Although there may be things that are yet to be fully implemented in the reforms initiated by Kyari, the ones executed have set the pace.
Apart from the new frontiers opened in oil explorations in our Basins to add to our oil reserves, the gas sector is also pursuing vigorously a gas masterplan that will not only make Nigeria a major oil exporting country in the league of countries like Qatar.
Oil discoveries in Gombe, Bauchi and Nassarawa State was part of a broader plan by Kyari led NNPC Limited to explore frontier Basins to expand our reserves.
The gas masterplan has transformed the gas sector which will form the backbone of industrialisation of the country through gas powered electricity and industrial gas availability in all parts of the country.
The famous AKK Gas pipeline project which will deliver gas to industries in Kaduna and Kano is one of the projects being executed while our gas powered power stations are being targeted for improved supply.
Most of the lies created or promoted against Mele Kyari have already fell on the faces of his traducers, but they persistently pursued their agenda to deceive Nigerians with more.
But there was a saying which says that, for every lie told, one needs ten to cover it up, hence their minute-by-minute, day-by-day lies through their minions parading as groups interested in the development of the nation.
If not a desperate attempt to create a Scapegoat, why would one blow up a normal process of the oversight and responsibility of our National Assembly to investigate issues into a corruption case against and individual.
For their information, investigation by the National Assembly is a necessary measure that ensure transparency in the oil and gas sector.
They shouldn’t see it as an attempt by our legislative arm to indict Kyari or the NNPC Limited as an institution. It is a responsibility reposed on the legislature which it carries out almost every time.
While this issue, they also brought the severance package of Kyari and Umar Ajiya, the NNPC Limited’s Group Executive Director (GED) Finance and Accounting.
According to these detractors,the duo collected as Pension and Gratuity while in active service, an allegation which the NNPC Limited management had denied putting their lies to the dustbin of their negative history.
In a statement to discredit their false claim, NNPC Limited Spokesperson, Garbadeen Muhammad, debunked the claim describing it’s as described the report as malicious and false.
He said, the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), Kyari and Ajiya positions at the NNPC Limited was not the same with their positions in the defunct NNPC.
According to him, they are entitled to gratuity and other benefits based on the termination of their appointments in the defunct NNPC which is different from NNPC Limited, a commercialised organisation they are working for at present.
Muhammad said, Kyari and Ajiya were appointed NNPC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) reapectively for a five years tenure each, which started from September 16 2021, which ended their employment with the defunct NNPC and entitled to terminal benefits.
He stated,“The general public may recall the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act and the successful transition of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to a commercially driven National Energy Company, the NNPC Limited.
“The new tenured roles they assumed with NNPC Limited cannot be regarded as a continuance of their previous positions in the defunct corporation”.
Nothing can be more frustrating for the purveyors of lies against these liars than the fact that, their lies are always punctured promptly, not by the man, but by people in the know who defend him and explain the ways things were and how they have been.
Imagine the pain of somebody who deploys resources to discredit a person of integrity and everything went to waste while the man’s image and refutation soars beyond imagination.
Their futile attempts have been on since his assumption of position as the helmsman of the defunct NNPC and the new company, the NNPC Limited.
They deployed their arsenal more as President Muhammadu Buhari, the man who appointed Kyari and refused to buy into their lies prepares to leave the stage.
Their plan now is to discredit Kyari before the President-Elect as he prepares to take the reins of affairs through callous campaigns of calumny which has failed from the outset.
These Detractors should be reminded again that, the incoming President-Elect is an oil industry player, a former accountant with Mobil who knows the arithmetic of how the industry is run, so they should tread with caution, less they are caught off guard and lay their ignorance and mischief in the open.
They must also know that, the Nigerian oil and gas industry is beyond Kyari, it is a collective industry operating through various channels which is beyond their myopic, shortsighted and biased minds.
His resolve to transform the NNPC has taken a straight path and nothing in the dorm of lies and propaganda can stop it. They should either stop, live with it or they stand and watch helplessly as the reforms take shape and Nigeria is taken out of the woods on the path of economic prosperity which will go with time as the world turns to green energy in the future.
Dahiru Hassan Kera, the publisher of Daylight Reporters Newspaper writes from Kaduna.
