NNPC: Minority issues and retirement of Andrew Yakubu

In this respect, it seems the ethnic minorities established give-and-take relationship with the presidency since Dr. Ebele Jonathan took the position. Effects of this relationship are quite obvious as these ethnic minorities from the North have been showing sympathy to the president by supporting his ambition to return to power by 2015. This is in […]

In this respect, it seems the ethnic minorities established give-and-take relationship with the presidency since Dr. Ebele Jonathan took the position. Effects of this relationship are quite obvious as these ethnic minorities from the North have been showing sympathy to the president by supporting his ambition to return to power by 2015. This is in addition to the total support they have been giving to his developmental programmes. To pay back, President Jonathan has been very keen and supportive of the aspirations of the northern minorities by appointing their sons and daughters to sensitive and high positions in the nation’s political and economic spheres. To this end, the appointment of Andrew Yakubu, who hails from Southern Kaduna, as Group Managing Director of the NNPC, was a big celebration among his people.
It then becomes curious that the president announced the sudden sack of Yakubu without adducing any reason. The question is: What is his offence?
Now, observers of the oil industry in Nigeria are aware that the sector is a cesspit of corruption. With admission by operators and regulators alike, that there are no accurate measures to determine how much crude is extracted and what quantity is daily exported except relying on figures from oil companies, anything goes in the sector. On February 4, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) raised the allegation that the NNPC failed to remit $20 billion crude revenue to the Federation Account.
By any stretch of imagination, $20 billion is not a small amount, and this allegation threw government into confusion. Although the NNPC managing director was not particularly accused of corruption and recklessness, the development immediately attracted varying reactions from the populace, with many calling for the sack of the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke.
As Diezani struggled without much conviction to clean up herself from the scandal, Nigerians were further enraged on April 28 when a concerned group raised the alarm that the minister blew a whooping N10 billion on a chartered jet from the accounts of the NNPC. Initial attempts to deny the allegation as usual failed to sell and various individuals and groups were employed to explain why she needed to expend the money even though there were no budgetary provisions for it.
Disturbed by the leakage of the information on the alleged N10 billion expended on the chartered jet, and furious that such information was allowed to get to the public, Diezani was poised to ousting Yakubu. But the presidency intervened, for the fear that Yakubu was one of the precious influences; hence, if removed, it would lose the support of the people of Southern Kaduna in 2015. There was the need to search for a suitable replacement, especially when considered that the 2015 election is only a few months away.
While the drama continued at the minister’s office, the House of Representatives resolved to probe the allegation.
The Committee on Public Accounts already had in its possession, documents, including the movement log of Challenger 850 jet under investigation. The probe was frustrated because Diezani was enjoying presidential backup. She refused to appear before the committee, and instead, headed for the law court. Even though the probe attempt was frustrated under the minister’s heavyweight, she was nevertheless flustered. Even President Jonathan considered removing her from the position and the vacancy in the Organisation of Petroleum Country (OPEC) secretary-general position was to have given her a soft landing.
Yakubu became an enemy because the major reason for the war borders was on the alleged refusal of the NNPC to pay the outstanding N1.56billion debt on the Challenger 850 jet.  It was revealed that about 500,000 Euros (about N130 million) was paid monthly to hire the jet. The company managing the lease of the aircraft was being owed for 12 months, which amounted to about N1.56 billion. The NNPC management was said to be reluctant to pay the debt. In addition, the GMD was said to be unhappy at being side-lined in decision-making processes by the minister. “These offences suggested that if the minister had had her way, the GMD would have gone earlier than now,” an industry top notch hinted.
The heat from the twin scandal of the missing $20 billion, which was doused by the purported hire of some auditors to probe the books of the NNPC and the N10 billion aircraft hire, has mellowed, but in the high-wired political boardroom, the loyalty must be 100 per cent.
Yakubu had allowed room for doubt and was destined for removal from his exalted office.
No occupier of Aso Rock since General Ibrahim Babangida has handled NNPC issues with levity. It is from the corporation’s coffers that monies used for big extra budgetary spending are sourced. The corporation funds removal of governors, enemy legislators and elections. It is therefore, too strategic to be messed with by any principled chief executive.
On August 1, 2014, a twit from the presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, was the nemesis of Yakubu, alongside the managing director of the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), Victor Briggs, of their appointments. The changes, which took immediate effect, paved way for Dr Joseph Thlama Dawha to replace Yakubu.
Dawha hails from Borno State and had served previously as the Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production, NNPC and Managing Director of Integrated Data Services Ltd (IDSL), a subsidiary of the NNPC. Dawha’s appointment is also very strategic because he is also an ethnic minority from the North.
Yusuf Issa An-Nuphawi wrote from Finance Quarters, Wuye, Abuja, [email protected]