President Muhammadu Buhari has dissolved the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation board.
The dissolution of the board was contained in a letter to the board on Friday signed by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr Danladi Kifasi.
Also, according to the presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina “The president has said he will clean up the oil sector. That is the beginning of the clean up.”
“It is significant,” Bismarck Rewane, economist and CEO of Lagos consultancy Financial Derivatives. “The whole structure of the NNPC is completely and utterly dysfunctional.”
In 2013, then central bank governor Lamido Sanusi said tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues had failed to make it into state coffers while watchdogs say the government may be losing billions more through opaque contracts in which crude oil is swapped for refined imports such as diesel.
The lower house of parliament decided on Wednesday to investigate whether the government had been short-changed by the state oil company scheme to swap crude for the refined products.
“You can’t possibly have the same board in place while the place is being investigated and with the intention to change the way things are being done there,” said Adesina.
“It’s the country’s cash cow. It has a bright future. It’s just that transparency and accountability have to be introduced into how it operates and this is the beginning of that process.”
The NNPC will report to the presidency until a new board is appointed, said Ohi Alegbe, a spokesman for the oil company.
Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency has investigated various oil scandals in the past, including a fuel subsidy fraud costing the government $6.8 billion between 2009-2011. But due to a lack of political will, only a handful were prosecuted.
The president has been advised to end a fuel subsidy programme by a 19-member transition committee formed from his All Progressives Congress (APC), senior party sources have told Reuters.
“The damage NNPC has done to the system, both culturally and economically is significant so it has to be followed up by the removal of subsidies, and restructuring,” said Rewane.
President Buhari, had in April stated that his administration would revisit the alleged missing $20 billion.
The Sacked Board Members of the NNPC
Dr. Joseph T. Dawha —Group Managing Director, hails from Borno State. He is an industry’s man who had served the corporation over the years in various capacities before becoming the GMD in March 2014. Dawha once served as Acting Group Executive Director of Exploration & Production at Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation until he was appointed GMD in March 2014. Dr. Dawha was also as the Managing Director of Integrated Data Services Ltd (IDSL) since 2005. He is capacities, in the upstream and downstream sectors of the industry.
Mr. Bernard O.N. Otti —until the dissolution of the board was NNPC’s Group Executive Director, Finance & Account and Deputy Group Managing Director. Otti fought frantically to discredit the report of Nuhu Ribadu panel that indicted the NNPC board in 2012. He threw caution to the dogs and got physical with the former anti-corruption czar before the former President at the villa during the submission of the report, saying it was ‘contrived’. Otti, a trained and experienced economist with more than twenty-four years post-graduate rich and varied experience was an erstwhile banker. He served the defunct NAL Merchant Bank, in a career that spanned over fifteen years. He served key positions in NAL merchant bank such as Forex and Treasury activities, Asset Management, Financial/Strategic adviser to various state governments and restructuring of local and international debts of developmental projects and industries. He served as Director of Nigerian Starch Mills Limited. He holds an MBA and B.Sc. degrees from Utah state University. He has a Diploma of the American Institute of Banking.
Dr. Dan Efebo — Group Executive Director, Corporate Services was before his appointment into the board the Group General Manager, in charge of the NNPC’s Human Resources Division. He was previously General Manager, Human Resources, Brass LNG. He hails from Bayelsa state.
Alhaji Abdullahi Bukar — A celebrated professional Engineer, he was a staff of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria and retired after over 30 years of meritorious service. Within this period he rose to become Engineering Manager and Technical Director of SPDC.
Danladi Kifasi — The man who announced the dissolution of the board on behalf of President Buahri is the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, HOCSF and a member of the board. A former Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, Kifasi also had stint as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Born on January 1, 1956, Kifasi serves as a non-Executive Director of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria, AMCON, and an Alternate Governor of Islamic Development Bank. An indigene of Taraba State, Mr. Kifasi, a chartered accountant and lawyer, was one of three Permanent Secretaries from the country’s North-East geo-political zone.
Stephen Osagiede Oronsaye — first appointed onto the Board of the CBN on July 31, 2008 for a four-year term, by virtue of his position then as Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance. His appointment was renewed in 2012 by President Jonathan. Oronsanye’s appointment raised eyebrows as it was believed to have violated the provisions of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act 2007 (as amended). Oronsaye, already serving as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the CBN and at the same time serving in a similar position on the Board of the NNPC negates Section 10 sub-section (2) of CBN Act, that states that a Director of the CBN cannot take up a similar appointment in any government establishment, whether federal, state or local government.
Oransanye is not new to controversy. An accountant and civil servant who retired as Head of the Civil Service of the Federation in June 2009, he had been appointed Principal Private Secretary to President Olusegun Obasanjo in1999. He was confirmed as Permanent Secretary, State House, an unusual appointment since he was not a civil servant, until then. In 2006, Oronsaye headed the committee on the review of the Civil Service Rules and Financial Regulations. He was appointed Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of on 20 August 2008. Oronsanye retired on 16 November 2010 after reaching the statutory retirement age of 60.
Ikechukwu Oguine – Former President Jonathan appointed Mr. Ikechukwu Oguine as the Coordinator, Legal Services and Company Secretary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in April, 2014. Oguine, from Anambra State, who has over 29 years of legal experience, replaces Mr. Anthony Chukwuma Madichie, who has served as NNPC’s Legal Adviser and Secretary to the Corporation since February 2011.