The recent sudden shakeup at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), announced by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, without doubt, sent shock waves through Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Being the back-bone of the Nigerian economy, what happens in the NNPCL impacts on the entire economy.

The fact that the NNPCL’s performance is unpredictable, that gives room for apprehension in different quarters. It is therefore, not surprising that the shakeup generated hysteria. Impromptu board meetings are being held by different organizations to strategize on possible outcome.

Thus, in what looks like a move to instill life into the NNPCL, President Tinubu, the other day, dissolved the board of the NNPCL and appointed a new chief executive officer for the company in the person of Mr. Bayo Ojulari. Before his new appointment, Ojulari was director of Shell Nigeria Petroleum Exploration Company, a subsidiary overseeing its Nigerian deep water investment as well as the vice president of Renaissance Africa Energy Company Limited, which recently acquired Shell’s onshore operations in Nigeria.

With a new board made up of crack professionals in the industry, who are versed with the nitty-gritty of the oil and gas business, the new team has what it takes to take the company to the next level. The problem with the NNPCL does not lie in its board composition, which has always been made up of people with the required expertise; the problem is in the wrongheaded rules and regulations guiding its operations. This constitutes the main hindrances responsible for failure of the NNPCL to live up to expectations.

After nearly fifty years since it was established, the NNPCL ought to have made positive impacts in the life of Nigerians. But that is far from being the case. The NNPCL and its opaque and none transparent conduct, have for decades made Nigerians not to believe it. There is no trust in the NNPCL. People don’t countenance the organization because its activities mean nothing to the ordinary Nigerians. The general impression is that the organization is just there to serve the interest of a clique in government. That is why it makes no meaning who becomes the head of the organization, because from records it is the same people that are being recycled from the north and the south west zones. The south east is completely shut out of the equation

That partly explains why the NNPCL has never lived to its bidding. Rather than make Nigerians leverage on the huge oil wealth and streaming petro- dollars, the wealth is frittered away into private pockets, leaving Nigerians in abject poverty. As a matter of fact, the NNPCL is synonymous with everything troubling Nigerians.

The question is to what extent are the new appointments in the organization going to be different from the previous ones. Are the appointments made to bring change, mark a new beginning or is it just another round of routine exercise to bring in new people to come and share in the booty? There is a horde of challenges that the new board is expected to tackle.

To start with is the issue of non functional refineries. There are four moribund refineries under the NNPCL that have virtually been abandoned for some years. The four refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, with a total combined capacity of 445,000 bpd have been unproductive for years thereby forcing Nigeria to resort to the importation of petrol and other refined petroleum products from abroad. The situation is largely at the root of the turbulent economic troubles that have impoverished Nigerians.

The controversial fuel subsidy payments are sequel to fuel importation. Perhaps, Nigeria is the only member of OPEC that can’t boast of one functional public refinery. NNPCL’s peers in other countries have moved from being just national oil companies to multinational oil corporations. Examples include Petrobras of Brazil, Aramco of Saudi Arabia and Petronas of Malaysia. Petrolbras, which is a publicly traded corporation, operates in an integrated and specialized manner in the oil and gas industry. It operates 11 refineries in Brazil, with a total crude refining capacity of 1.85 million bpd.

By share luck, amid the failure of NNPCL to manage its refineries for productivity, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a top rate business tycoon and Africa’s richest man floated the biggest petrochemical refinery to fill the gap in oil refining in Nigeria. Rather than give maximum support to the refinery to supplement the short fall in Nigeria’s petroleum refining output, the NNPCL is playing politics with the Dangote refinery to the detriment of Nigerians. As it were, the Dangote refinery is forced to import crude oil from abroad for its operation. The naira for crude arrangement to enhance crude supply to Dangote is unrealistic. There is need to streamline the arrangement for a steady supply of crude to Dangote which is beneficial to Nigeria.

The issue of transparency and allegations of massive corruption in the company’s operations remains on the front burner. How is the NNPCL going to tackle this challenge under the new leadership? Is it possible for NNPCL to operate in a transparent and less opaque manner in other to gain public confidence and trust?

There is also the issue of heavy interference by government in the operation of the company. When the President of the country is the oil minister, he takes direct charge of the company’s operations. Consequently, the appointments in the company are politicised. Funds are frequently missing without accountability this explain why the operations of the company are opaque to hide dubious activities taking place. This also explains why the NNPCL hardly declares profits but instead incurs huge debts on behalf of Nigerians.

Against this backdrop, the first task before the new leadership and its board is to work towards turning the company around from loss making, debt incurring Government Company to a profit making, dividend declaring company. The issue of listing NNPCL on the Nigerian Stock Exchange has been mooted in the past without being accomplished. The new board and its management should get the company listed on the Stock Exchange in order to enhance transparency.

The opacity bedeviling the company is partly due to lack of transparent accounting and auditing system. The board should engage a reputable audit firm to audit the company on regular basis.

Another task is the status of the four redundant refineries. What is the board going to do with them? Is it to sell them off since the previous turn around maintenance (TAM) yielded no positive result?

Furthermore, reports indicate that the company has a bloated workforce of 7,000 who are paid over half a trillion naira yearly, while the company regularly is running at a loss.

There is also the issue of green energy to which NNPCL should shift towards. The board should work towards being a global player. The NNPCL should be future oriented in the light of the emerging technological breakthroughs.

Dr. Onyekakeyah is a public affairs commentator