NNPC Strong Men To Be Sacked, Accounts Probed By Buhari

The incoming Muhammadu Buhari
administration will replace the top management
of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC), Reuters news agency reported.
It will also review the accounts of the oil
company to restore credibility, according to
sources within Buhari’s party, the All
Progressives Congress (APC).
It said the new government will submit a bill to
break the NNPC into four entities, as already
prescribed in the latest PIB draft.
One APC source told Reuters that the Bill “will
also, crucially, remove the minister of
petroleum from the NNPC’s board of directors
to curb political interference.”
Others said more generally that the minister’s
current powers would be heavily trimmed.
Oil and gas will have separate companies for
upstream, with a third covering pipelines and
refining, while a fourth will be an inspectorate.
The NNPC Management is made up of Group
Managing Director Dr. Joseph T. Dawha; Group
Executive Director, Finance & Accounts Mr.
Bernard O.N. Otti; Group Executive Director,
Corporate Services Dr. Dan Efebo, and Member,
Alhaji Abdullahi Bukar, who make up the Board.
The Board is chaired by petroleum minister
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and members are
Mr. Danladi Wadzani, Prof. Olusegun Okunnu;
Mr. Danladi Kifasi, Mr. Steven Oronsaye, and
Mr. Ikechukwu Oguine, Coordinator, Legal
Services/Secretary to the Corporation.
Reuters said oil firms keen to know how the new
government plans to tax them could be waiting
for a long time as the President-elect makes
ending corruption and reforming the opaque
national oil company his most urgent sector
priority.
Four party sources in the APC told Reuters the
issue of fiscal terms, seen as crucial by the
industry, will have to wait on current thinking
about oil and gas policies in Nigeria.
Crude output has stagnated close to 2m barrels
per day, owing partly to under-investment.
“We need to address the structural issues and
leave the fiscal for now,” Senator Bukola Saraki,
told Reuters.
“A more transparent NNPC is needed with
reasonable accounting,” he added.
Buhari owes his March 28 victory against
Goodluck Jonathan partly to a perception that
Jonathan allowed corruption to get out of control
– especially in the oil sector.