Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa
Stakeholders from the Niger Delta region, under the aegis of the Movement for the Sustainable Development of the Niger Delta (MSDND), have called on President Bola Tinubu to use the retirement age of the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari to rejig the oil and gas sector and appoint a new substantive head of the NNPCL.
According to the MSDND, millions of suffering Nigerians are not felicitating with Kyari on his 60th birthday, insisting that his leadership as the NNPCL’s boss has brought tremendous hardship to the country.
They maintained that Kyari must urgently step down as GMD of Nigeria’s NNPCL in accordance with the public service rules and not allow the institution to defy tradition by arguing that the oil giant’s new status as a limited liability company frees him from such constraint.
The NNPCL Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Umar Ajiya, who turns 60 in March has already retired, therefore Mele Kyari should not be allowed to remain in office either.
The Publicity Secretary of MSDND, Comrade Kelvin Orughoe, stated that the NNPCL needs rejuvenation and restructuring to allow practical development in the oil and gas sector to flourish.
“I call on President Tinubu, in the interest of the country and for the good of his administration, to change the leadership of the NNPCL due to its years of deceit, failures and incompetence.”
Orughoe emphasized that it would be a great disservice to over 200 million Nigerians should President Tinubu fall for the antics of Kyari’s desperation for tenure elongation.
“The NNPCL’s leadership failures are too numerous to count. Where do we start, is it from the failures of the $1.5 billion Port Harcourt Refinery Rehabilitation scandal?
“To the $898 million Warri Refinery Rehabilitation scandal, or the $741 million Kaduna Refinery Rehabilitation scandal, or are they failures over the years to meet Nigeria’s OPEC quota?
“These NNPCL officials have been telling Nigerians the same stories for years.
“It is time for President Tinubu to try new hands and new brains to reduce the sufferings of Nigerians as a result of the NNPCL’s leadership failures,” the group said.