By Gift Eguavoen
In a sweeping reconstitution of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), President Bola Tinubu has approved the sacking of its CEO, Mele kyari and the Board of the NNPCL.
Ahmadu Musa Kida has been announced as the new Board Chairman, to replace Chief Pius Akinyelure, while the NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, has been replaced by Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari.
All other board members appointed with Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023, were also removed by the president.
Of the 11-member board, the six board members, representing the country’s geopolitical zones, are Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), and Babs Omotowa, a former managing director of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG), who represents North Central.
Others are Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South West), and Henry Obih (South East).
Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the new board, Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, while Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has also been appointed to the new board.
According to a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President (Information & Strategy), all the appointments are immediately effective today, April 2, 2025
He noted that President Tinubu, invoking the powers granted under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, emphasised that the board’s restructuring is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boosting local content, driving economic growth, and advancing gas commercialisation and diversification.
“President Tinubu also handed out an immediate action plan to the new board: to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives,” the statement said.
Onanuga explained further that since 2023, the Tinubu administration has implemented oil sector reforms to attract investment. “Last year, NNPC reported $17 billion in new investments within the sector. The administration now envisions increasing the investment to $30 billion by 2027 and $60 billion by 2030.”
Additionally, he said, “the Tinubu administration targets raising oil production to two million barrels daily by 2027 and three million daily by 2030. Concurrently, the government wants gas production jacked to 8 billion cubic feet daily by 2027 and 10 billion cubic feet by 2030. Furthermore, President Tinubu expects the new board to elevate NNPC’s share of crude oil refining output to 200,000 barrels by 2027 and reach 500,000 by 2030.”
About the new NNPCL board Chairman
The new board Chairman, Ahmadu Musa Kida, is from Borno State. He is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he received a degree in civil engineering in 1984. He also obtained a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris
He started his career in the oil industry at Elf Petroleum Nigeria and later joined Total Exploration and Production as a trainee engineer in 1985.
Musa became Total Nigeria’s Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015. Last year, he became an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group.
Apart from his oil industry career, Kida is a former basketballer and the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) board.
About the new NNPCL CEO
Bashir Bayo Ojulari, hails from Kwara State, and until his new appointment, was the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company. His Renaissance recently led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in the landmark acquisition of the entire equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), worth $2.4 billion.
Like Kida, Ojulari is also an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked for Elf Aquitaine as the first Nigerian process engineer to begin a stellar career in the oil sector. From Elf, he joined Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in 1991 as an associate production technologist.
He has also worked in Europe and the Middle East in different capacities as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager. In 2015, he became the managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO).