It will be difficult for the international oil industry, and the world at large, to swallow the official line that Nigerian president Jonathan Goodluck’s replacement of the four top executives at the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (reported here by Reuters) is a “routine” matter. The fact is that there has been consistent pressure on government over the past few years to crank up the NNPC’s transparency on the way it conducts its business – particularly in the areas of alleged sharp business practices; violation of regulations; illegal deduction of funds; corrupt payments to officials; leaking of bid information; and failure to account for missing funds. Perhaps this latest presidential management shake-up heralds the start, at last, of a genuine clean-up. The world may not be holding its breath… GK
ABUJA (Reuters) -2/08/14 – Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan has replaced the top four executives at Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, his office said on Saturday, intervening in one of the country’s most powerful institutions and the source of 80 percent of government revenues.
Reuben Abati, a spokesman for Goodluck Jonathan’s office, said the change was routine, declining to give further details.
Jonathan has come under intense pressure to clean up Africa’s biggest energy sector after a public outcry over corruption and waste of the country’s vast energy wealth.
There was similar pressure at the time of the previous NNPC management change in June 2012, however, and critics say little has changed since.
Appointments to powerful positions in a Nigerian election cycle – presidential polls are six months away – are also often linked to shoring up patronage networks.
Joseph Thlama Dawha replaces Andrew Yakubu as NNPC group managing director. He is a Christian from Biu, an area in the largely Muslim north-eastern Borno state which is currently being ravaged by an Islamist Boko Haram insurgency that has heavily targeted Christians.
Dawha previously held another executive role within the company.
Jonathan, a Christian from the south, is keen to boost allies in the north, where he is least popular and faces a tough opposition alliance in February’s vote.
Anthony Muoneke, a career lawyer, took up management of the state oil firm’s development arm, the NPDC. Aisha Mata Abdurrahman is the new group executive director of commercial and investment. Attahir Yusuf is the new group executive director of business development.
Numerous reports and audits have accused NNPC of corruption and in February then central bank governor Lamido Sanusi submitted evidence to parliament that the company had failed to remit some $20 billion it owed.
The NNPC denied the charges.
Oil industry sources say it matters little who is at the top of the NNPC, because major decisions are made by Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke, without whose blessing no deals are signed.
In addition to suspected corruption, Nigeria’s oil sector suffers from oil theft in the creeks of the Niger Delta where tens of thousands of barrels are siphoned off each day.
