Energy
Groups seek review of management appointments in NNPC
By Richards Adeniyi
The lopsidedness in the recent appointment into top management positions in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has turned the searchlight on the state-owned oil behemoth as some groups and political leaders have accused the federal government of promoting a northern agenda in the allocation of resources from oil.
They called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently intervene and review the appointments in NNPC announced recently by its group managing director, Maikanti Baru.
Of the 15 appointments made, 10 were from the North, three Southwest, two from the South-South and there was none from the South East.
To Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, and other opinion molders in the South, the action is the latest in the series of deliberate ethnic and religious bias in appointments in NNPC and is a threat to national unity.
“The present government is insensitive to the calls of well-meaning Niger Deltans on the lopsided appointments and management of the NNPC since the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari came on board,” Pan Niger Delta People’s Congress (PNDPC), leader, Ayemi-Botu, said of the lopsided appointments
“The President actually started with 33 appointments clearly against the region, later it replaced the Group Managing Director of NNPC with a northerner and even when the 16-point agenda was presented to him,November 1, last year, his attention was drawn to the composition of NNPC board, dominated by northerners.
“There is no gainsaying that NNPC is an offshoot of oil that is derived from the Niger Delta and the people must have a say in what happens, but even while the anger has not subsided, the President came with the latest reshuffling or whatever they call it, where the north again has taken over the NNPC. This is unacceptable to the region.
“I dare say that the President should wake up and redress this anomaly for the region is very disturbed about it. We own the oil; it belongs to us, we should not be marginalized in our own resource, that is why everybody is calling for restructuring,” he added.
Chief John Nwodo, president-general of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, in a statement called on President Buhari to review the appointments. Hesaid Ohanaeze was appalled at what it saw as the “consistent and unrepentant disposition of disdain for the South East” by Buhari’s administration as seen in the reorganization at the NNPC.
“This brazen disregard, marginalisation, and non-compliance with the Federal character provisions in our Constitution are the causes of lack of confidence which our youths have in our present governance structure.
“As long as President Buhari continues to live out his speech abroad that his government will favour those who voted 97 percent for him against those who voted five percent for him, so long will the dissatisfaction and unrest in our polity subsist,” Nwodo warned.
Similarly, Afenifere through its spokesman, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, said: “The issue for us is not about whether it favours us or does not favour us; it is about justice to all and being that it is skewed and that is not the way to build an inclusive society.
“You must carry everybody along. Does that mean that there was nobody qualified from the South East?
“Why the sheer impunity? I think that those who are running Nigeria now should be mindful of the need to build an inclusive society.
“You must earn the confidence of all, and it is not too late for this administration to listen and do something that is more balanced in a multi-ethnic society.”