Some of the persons appointed as members of the board and management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited are allies of President Muhammadu Buhari.
On Wednesday, Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity had announced the appointment which he claimed was in accordance with the power vested in the president under Section 59 (2) of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.
The chairman of the Board is; Senator Margret Chuba Okadigbo (South East), Mele Kolo Kyari, Chief Executive Officer, and Umar I. Ajiya, Chief Financial Officer.
Other Board Members are Tajudeen Umar (North East), Lami Ahmed (North Central), Mallam Mohammed Lawal (North West), Henry Obih (South East), Barrister Constance Harry Marshal (South-South), and Pius Akinyelure (South West) among others.
According to Daily Trust, the new appointments revealed that the president compensated some of his old allies with the appointments, while shunning technocrats and professionals in the oil and gas sector.
Senator Margret Chuba Okadigbo was the wife of former Senate President Chuba Okadigbo. Chuba was the running mate to Buhari when the latter contested for Presidency in 2003 under the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) but lost the election to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Okadigbo died in the same year that the election held. He passed on due to breathing problems a day after he was teargassed at a campaign rally in Kano. 12 years after his death, his widow was elected a senator.
She represented Anambra North at the senate in the 8th assembly. Buhari has now picked the widow of his former running mate to chair NNPC board.
Another ally of Buhari on the NNPC board is Tajudeen Umar. He was said to have been on the board since the inception of the Buhari administration.
He was appointed into the board when Maikanti Baru was made the Group Managing Director of the corporation.
Umar was a part of Buhari’s strategic think tank before the president was elected. He is on the NNPC board as the North-East representative.
Also, Barrister Constance Harry Marshal, a daughter of Marshal Sokai Harry, the National Coordinator of Buhari’s 2003 Presidential Campaign in the South South was appointed as a member of the NNPC board.
Sokai Harry was reportedly murdered in Abuja during the 2003 presidential elections. His death had sparked a huge controversy as many high-ranking government officials were accused of being behind it.
The deceased’s child has now been appointed as the representative of the South South on the NNPC Board.
Engr. Henry Ikemefuna Obih, the South East representative on the board, is an ally of Rotimi Amaechi, who is one of the most powerful ministers in Buhari’s cabinet. Twice, Buhari chose Amaechi as the head of his campaign and the minister has been part of the government since 2015. He also has direct access to Buhari.
Obih, a former Executive Director of Operations at Mobil Oil Nigeria plc is a University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) trained Engineer. His ties to Amaechi dates back to when the Minister of Transportation was governor of Rivers State. When Amaechi crossed over to the Federal Cabinet, Obih happened to be among those who remained in his close circle.
Chief Pius Akinyelure, a former National Vice Chairman (South West) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is the South West representative on the NNPC board. The Ondo-trained tax practitioner was elected a senator in 2011. He was out of the senate when Buhari came to power in 2015 but has been a promoter of the government since then. He used his role as an APC big wig in the South-West in the interest of the Buhari administration.
Bobboi Ahmed was appointed as a council member for the Midstream and Downstream Infrastructure Fund. Prior to now, he was the head of Petroleum Equalisation Fund Management; a post he owes to Buhari, who appointed him in 2016.
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