Mele Kyari: He was relevant when he was necessary
Until now, NNPC and INEC were the only institutions that Tinubu had not imposed on his tribesmen to lead. So, the only one left is the electoral body. Mele Kyari is not the only official to be sacked. It was the whole NNPC board. Tinubu appointed another Yoruba man from Kwara as the head. But […]
Until now, NNPC and INEC were the only institutions that Tinubu had not imposed on his tribesmen to lead. So, the only one left is the electoral body. Mele Kyari is not the only official to be sacked. It was the whole NNPC board. Tinubu appointed another Yoruba man from Kwara as the head. But nepotism is not our point of discussion.
Some were surprised about his sack because the Presidency only renewed his five-year term in November 2023. Yes, the Tinubu administration needed him, and they kept him until they thought otherwise. The pattern shows they only retain past administrators until they are no longer necessary. Like dairy cows, they get discarded once they are milked and found to be dry. Kyari’s situation was not different: a controversial official kept executing unpopular policies and was sacked when he became less relevant.
Mele Kyari’s reign will be fondly remembered for his failure to meaningfully contribute to the fight between the Tinubu administration and Aliko Dangote as the latter’s refinery started producing. Kyari exposed the lack of depth of this government when it comes to transparency and telling the truth. NNPC’s communiques regarding crude oil deals and fuel prices, denial of suppliers, opening of refineries, and many more were embarrassing, to say the least. This should not have happened, especially under a regime that removed the fuel subsidy, relied on blending plants in Malta, and received loans from multilateral agencies in billions of dollars to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removals.
The fundamental problem with this liberal-leaning Tinubu administration is that they think running a country revolves around making money instead of public interests. The previous government thought in a similar way, too. But unlike the previous government, which did not discuss money, this one prefers to discuss it. This is why whenever the administrators of the Tinubu administration openly brag about the relevance of not spending money or rationalise the case for removing all types of subsidies, they fall short and lose the debates. The public sees them for who they are—always mercenaries.
Yes, Dangote beat them at every step. He treated the administration like amateurs who were learning the art of media propaganda. The Dangote Group presented many facts, pushing the government into a defensive position. The Malta refinery racketeering was one embarrassing moment, but not the only one. The government came up short in every argument. Dangote exposed the Tinubu administration’s lack of communication strategy, gained the sympathies of Nigerians, and made huge profits.
But there is also another reason why the government lost. Kyari and the Tinubu administration chose to fight within his territory—the private sector, instead of using the objective of a public enterprise to compete with a private company. I mean, NNPC decided to pursue profit—make money off Nigerians, like Dangote, instead of operating in the public interest by providing affordable petroleum products while also potentially generating revenue for the government. This would not have happened if they had listened to the songs of experts, but they chose to cut off their ears.
In the end, Kyari will leave two legacies for the NNPC. First, as a state-owned company, the NNPC failed to outbid the Dangote refinery in selling cheaper petroleum products despite being the country’s only importer of refined petroleum products. Second, Kyari could not make any of the four refineries functional despite the massive amount of money spent to revamp them.
To be fair on the second point, there is a claim that Warri and Port Harcourt refineries are now blending plants. By any means, this is not a silver lining, but I will let the accountants and the financial intelligence unit crunch the numbers for us.
Another contracting issue is that Tinubu has repeatedly accused Buhari’s administration of bankrupting Nigeria. On the contrary, he still relied on administrators who embodied these same failings.
The Auditor-General of Nigeria recently exposed a ₦514 billion fraud at the NNPCL, involving unauthorised deductions, financial mismanagement and clear violations of financial regulations. Despite Mele Kyari being the centre of these accusations, Tinubu surprisingly renewed his appointment.
And before we forget, a controversial moment happened immediately after Kyari’s renewal when this administration engaged in a risky foreign exchange deal. Kyari was allowed to step beyond his official role as GMD of NNPC. He arranged a questionable foreign exchange loan deal worth $3.3 billion from Afreximbank using an offshore company based in the Bahamas named Project Gazelle Funding Ltd. The loan had a very high-interest rate of 11.85 per cent, far above the usual concessional loans from international institutions like the World Bank or IMF, which typically offer rates below 3%.
Contrary to Nigeria’s law under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the loan was not specifically for capital projects or human development; instead, it was intended mainly to stabilise the exchange rate—an area outside the legal responsibility of the NNPCL. This is something within the realm of the Minister of Finance. And the dodgy SPV involved raised a lot of eyebrows.
The risks involved in this deal become clear when examining its structure. Nigeria pledged its oil revenue for five years, committing 90,000 barrels of oil per day to repay this expensive loan. Additionally, the facilitators of the loan will receive a $66 million commission, and Nigeria faces severe penalties if repayments fail.
Ultimately, Kyari failed, and his sacking cannot be regretted. Despite his prominence, he easily became a scapegoat and was quickly discarded once the political and economic consequences of his actions became apparent. His termination represents the governance pattern under Tinubu—he was only relevant because he was necessary.