By Ikeddy ISIGUZO
WHEN we demand that President Bola Tinubu should do better, what do we really mean? Are we asking him to continue excelling in his decision to personalise, and determine standards – for doing government business -which should be the people’s business?
Do standards matter to Tinubu if they are not his “global standards” that flow from his experience working for global businesses across two continents?
Tinubu, the strategist thinks nothing of managing the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Plc, NNPCL, with monumental unimportance. He has reflected it in his appointments.
More importantly, he is the Minister of Petroleum. The NNPCL which is still the focus, has no board. Everything is reported to Tinubu.
The current setting is immensely dangerous. The President has immunity that cannot see him being investigated over his decisions and indecisions.
It is not an entirely new practice. Outside Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, other presidents since 1999, have been their Ministers of Petroleum. The unimaginable abuses entailed are the foundation of today’s abuses that have grown to values in the company.
NNPCL addresses itself as a global energy business that aspires to be the global energy company of choice. Then it throws in the usual fillers that unclad excellence, integrity, reliability, resilience, and the like.
If we discount the size and scope of its business activities, the smallest filling station may be run better than NNPCL. The difference between the filling station and NNPCL extends to the fact that ownership of a small filing station has interests in its profitability and sustenance. Both words mean nothing to how NNPCL is run.
Events of the past week portray NNPCL as a family business with conflicting orders from family heads, guards, and outsiders of indecernible powers.
We gloat over NNPCL as our national oil company, first line custodian of our oil and gas assets on which the national economy and the resources that whet the greed of the high and mighty run.
How can such an important organisation be gutted by news of forced resignation of the Group Chief Executive Officer, GCEO, and the appointing authority is satisfied with tepid statements that imply that things are worse than we imagine?
Does the news of the GCEO of this global company being removed and restated over allegations that have not be investigated have no meaning in how it conducts its business?
Why is the government carrying on as if the return of the GCEO is an achievement? Does the President/Minister of Petroleum Resources believe that NNPCL is his company to be run the way that pleases him?
Should Nigerians not know what happened beyond the limp defence that contracts from NNPCL were being farmed out to an associate of the President’s political opponent? So, being related to an opposition politician disqualifies people from being awarded contracts, even if they otherwise qualify?
Does that not smell abuse of office?
The President has many questions to answer. There are too many cloudy activities, still called allegations, in NNPCL. If the Minister of Petroleum, also the President, is uninterested in dealing with them, as part of his own understanding of accountability and integrity, he should at least not add to them.
Whatever happened in NNPCL, in the past week, has roots in the consequences of operating a global company like a one man business. Anyone can stroll into NNPCL peddle some influence and disrupt the operations of the company.
Strategists can take us to parts we never knew. There is reluctance to say anything public about how billions of Dollars had been wasted on the refineries, fuel subsidies and the state of NNPCL with its vacuous accounting systems that exclude trillions of Naira.
Will answering some of these questions, going after the suspects, open new flanks that can hit the President’s chances in 2027, with devastating blows?
How does the Minister of Petroleum intend to manage NNPCL in the coming months? Can we at least know details of the saga at NNPCL? Who deployed the forces that staged the play at NNPCL?
If the President cannot punish them, he can publicly praise them for doing a great job. The Minister of Petroleum and President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria cannot be unaware of how a major leg of his office works.
It would be completely unbelievable that he is also disinterested in the leadership of NNPCL and how it operates.
Finally…
JUST imagine in the ValueJet and others versus Alhaji Ayinde Marshal, more popularly known as, K1 De Ultimate, matter, if the owner of the airline and pilot were of different origin, and maybe if the airport was not Abuja. It would have been a clear case of attempted assassination, linked to a well-known presidential candidate, on whose behalf the airline acted, knowing fully well that K1 is an ardent support of the President. May the Almighty keep protecting Nigeria, and Nigerians from chaos in any form it tries to present itself.
CONGRATULATIONS D’Tigress for your fifth straight win of the African women’s basketball title. I am more included to call you Super D’Tigress. The President did not fall into the temptation of not rewarding you as he did with the football team. Let us see who will tell the President not to reward other teams in the same terms as the Super Falcons. Our money will not “finish” – we can always borrow.
IF you are in any political coalition these days, the standard code is to be in at least three different groups. The different factions – or fractions – are fusing and diffusing at a pace that primes confusion, especially as many keep talking about 2027 as if they have abolished next year, 2026.
MOTHER of the nation, as many now call the President’s wife, Mrs Remi Tinubu, is growing by the day in her welfare and philanthropic activities. Does anyone know Mrs Tinubu’s net worth? What is the source of the billions of Naira she donates? How much tax does she pay annually? We should not stand by while all manners of insinuations are made about her wealth. Or shouldn’t she speak up for herself?
PETER Obi got some roasting on X for speaking out against the arrest of another presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, whose supporters said Obi was chasing relevance. “Did he twit about the plane crash in Ghana (he did) or the tarmac incident involving K1 De Ultimate?,” they asked. They advised Obi to learn how to bear grudges because he would need it heading to 2027.
DR. Mumini Alao, a long-term sports journalist, launches his biography, MUMINI ALAO, today 10 August at the University of Lagos. Mr. Babatunde Fashola, former Governor of Lagos, former Minister of Works, has confirmed that he will deliver the keynote address.
A COALITION of Nigeria’s aviation unions has declared an indefinite strike from Monday, 11 August. The unions blame the Federal Government’s failure to implement a long-promised salary structure for airspace management personnel of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, for the strike that is expected to disrupt flight operations nationwide.
WEST African Examination Council, WAEC has joined in mangling the future of the youth. The matter will as usual be treated as of it does not matter. When JAMB released its results earlier in the year, protests attended it. Parents and their wards complained. JAMB finally admitted something was wrong. WAEC has followed the same steps in the 2025 examinations. Will there be any consequences for those toying with our future? Not when neither the present nor the past had counted in how the authorities manage Nigeria.
ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues
