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Tinubu’s oily mess, NNPC ’s absurdities and the mendacity of Mele Kyari

Published

2 years ago

September 11, 2024

Whirlwindnews

By Ifeanyi Izeze

For God’s sake, the fact that these people are in government or in charge of our public institutions does not mean they love the country more than all of us. And the idea of thinking they always know what they are doing more than the rest of us is what is almost running this country aground with the current mess.

How can you run the most important agency that carries the nation’s entire economy in such arrogant, reckless, and opaque manner?

The vexing arrogance and impunity we are seeing the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, display in running the affairs of the nation’s apex oil concern was birthed “small small”. He experimented this callousness with Buhari and nothing was done to either call him to order or outrightly ease him off. And now he is emboldened to do more heinous things as if Nigeria belongs to him and the evil spirits beating the drum he is dancing to.

The President could not have said this nation is not paying subsidy and then one entity under this federation that does not have powers to run but has been running as if it’s a government would come and tell us that we have been buying the fuel and augmenting shortfalls in cost even though they don’t want to use the word ‘subsidy.’ So who is in charge of our government – the President or Mele Kyari, the NNPCL Chief Executive Officer?

It was still this Kyari’s tenure in the NNPC during the immediate past administration that we first heard in this country that Nigeria did not make a dime selling over 1.5 million barrels per day of its crude oil, condensate etc. This was not once, it was not one month, it was not three months and nothing happened. The whole nation moved on as if that was the normal thing to do. How do you explain that? And Kyari usually had the temerity to tell the sitting President and the Council of State that there was no single Kobo to pay into the Federation Account for the states to share and dumbishly, all of them accepted such explanations as if they were under a spell.

Now under Tinubu’s government he has even been more emboldened obviously because he must have been part of the president’s election campaign funding using whose money – NNPC’s money, our money!

This is the same person who has been going to raise billions of dollars from foreign credit agencies in exchange for produced and yet-to-be produced nation’s share of the joint venture crude oil, as he said “to defend or rather stabilise the Naira.” Is it the business of NNPC to go abroad and borrow money for Nigeria to stabilise the Naira/economy or that of the CBN? Absurdities everywhere and those who know and should ask questions have all gone deaf and dumb. The judgement/punishment of Almighty God is real and ‘God case, no appeal’!

Whether anybody wants to hear this or not, as said in one of my analysis in 2023, this same Mele Kyari actually engineered the current ‘owigiri’ dance in prices of food items and almost every other commodity in the market particularly our domestic fuel pricing template following Tinubu’s reckless pronouncement at the Eagle Square during his inauguration. Immediately the President made his ‘kai kai’ pronouncement that “subsidy is gone and gone forever”, the NNPC man came out to contend that the new president has no right to just stop subsidy payment without consulting him to know what’s on ground on the issue.

As if that was not enough, also without consulting the president, NNPC jacked up the price of petrol overnight from N195 to N557 per litre and that was how this journey of ever-increasing prices started. Now we are at N897 per litre only at NNPC/OVH retail outlets. Elsewhere, a litre sells for between N950-N1, 300 in and around Abuja.

Buhari’s two tenures (2015-2023) saw petrol price move from N87 to N195 per litre (124% increase).

Tinubu’s slightly over one year in office has already seen the NNPC move petrol price from N195 (2023) through N557 (2023) to N617 (2023) and now N897 (2024).

“Subsidy is Gone” snowballed into ‘no dime’ to pay into the Federation Account for the states to share in addition to an outstanding debt/bill of over $6.8 billion. Haba!

The question is: Whose interest(s) is Kyari protecting?

Saudi Aramco is the NNPC of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Now close your eyes and imagine that Saudi Aramco lied to the people of Saudi Arabia. Not once, but four times. “Lie to Nigerians” was what the NNPCL have done.

The NNPCL told Nigerians that they raked in N3 trillion in profits. Guess what? International oil traders are refusing to discharge PMS, until they are paid the $6.8 billion owed to them by the same national oil company.

The initial denial of debt by the NNPC is a clear indication of an attempt to cover up and deceive the Nigerian people. It is unacceptable for a state-owned corporation to engage in such blatant deception, and Mele Kyari must be held accountable for this betrayal of public trust.

This man has to tell us where he derived the power to on his own appropriate our monies. On his own, he goes ahead to spend money without appropriation and comes back to tell us he used the money to make up for cost ‘under-recovery’. Haba, bros! Who authorized you to do that and the monies you are spending, was it appropriated because it’s our collective national wealth? Even if you claim to be a private liability company, you are sitting down there on behalf of the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people.

How can a limited liability company (NNPCL) run our nation at its whims and caprices as if there’s no government in place? The main resource of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings is oil. How do you explain that this resource is being managed anyhow by this so-called private company without the control of state agencies?

Is NNPC, whether privatised or not, running our own national assets – crude oil, natural gas, LNG, etc – on its own whims and caprices? And is it spending the monies it makes from our resources on its own whims and caprices? Where do they derive the authourity to do so?

How come they told us there was no subsidy and now coming out to tell us that not only had there been subsidy but that they are owing to the tune of over $6 billion and the only solution they have is to jack up the fuel price to almost N897 per litre? Is this not outright provocation of the Nigerian masses?

The Presidency says they do not know anything about this and that Nigerians should ask NNPC. Can you imagine what the President who is also Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum is saying about the daylight callousness and fraud in a ministry he superintends? It’s inexplicable that the President has the temerity to be telling us that NNPC has been spending that much money. The question is: on whose authourity and by whose approval? The President himself has some explaining to do to us on the recklessness of this NNPC chief executive officer.

It’s very unfortunate that the NNPC has been allowed to grow to this monster that believes it can do whatever it likes while the country and its economy continue to suffer unnecessarily.

Shouldn’t any reasonable National Assembly representing the voices of the people be calling Mele Kyari, and everybody involved in this heist with impunity, to question them and answer to Nigerians on these issues of impunity and sleaze in our oil business? Actually a serious National Assembly should be calling the President who doubles as Minister of Petroleum to come and answer charges. Appropriation is a very serious issue and no individual has the right/power to go spending humongous amounts of monies that were not appropriated.

The NNPC guys that speak from all angles of their mouths came out of the meeting last week with the Vice President Shetima to say that Dangote’s fuel price will depend on Naira exchange rate. “Foreign exchange (forex) illiquidity has been a significant factor influencing the fluctuation in prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), which are governed by unrestricted free market forces, as provided for in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021.”

As said by the company/corporation, “The market has been deregulated, meaning that petrol prices are now determined by market forces rather than by the government or NNPC Ltd. Additionally, the exchange rate plays a significant role in influencing these prices.”

And this free-market forces are solely determined by NNPCL reason they did wake up in the middle of the night to adjust the price of PMS from N617 per litre to N897 per litre?

So as ‘Naira no get standing, sitting, or squatting rate – N1500 today, N1650 tomorrow, petrol price will now join it in this acrobatic gwo gwo gwo ngwo dance, right? What they are saying in other words is that, on some days it could be N900 on others it could be N1500 or more. Is that how they run a productive economy?

In all these back and forth, what is the President’s position? Unknown exactly! The silence of the President who is also the substantive Minister of Petroleum is just not only too golden, it smells more of complicity in the rubbish by the NNPCL since the inception of this administration.

Izeze writes from Abuja and can be reached via iizeze@yahoo.com or +234 (0) 803 304 3009

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US-Iran deal: Petrol prices remain high in Nigeria *Marketers snub Dangote

Published

13 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Whirlwindnews

Fuel marketers across Abuja on Wednesday continued to sell Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, at old prices more than 24 hours after Dangote Petroleum Refinery announced a reduction in its ex-depot price, Vanguard is reporting.

The paper reported that its investigation, showed that major retail outlets were yet to adjust their pump prices despite the N75 per litre reduction announced by the refinery on Monday.

At the retail stations visited in Abuja, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Retail and TotalEnergies dispensed petrol at N1,335 per litre, while AA Rano sold at N1,350 per litre. AYM Shafa and Conoil outlets sold the product at N1,330 per litre.

The development comes amid growing public expectations that the reduction in Dangote Refinery’s gantry price would quickly translate into lower pump prices nationwide.

Explaining the delay, the President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Dr. Billy Gillis-Harry, said retail prices are influenced by several factors beyond refinery gate prices.

Speaking to Channels TV, Gillis-Harry said: “Prices reflecting at the pump are dependent on availability of the product, the other is the cost. The cost of purchasing the product and cost in terms of logistics, and preparing the particular petroleum to be delivered to the people”.

According to him, downward price adjustments often take longer to reach consumers because marketers need to recover the cost of existing stock purchased at higher prices before restocking at lower rates.

When asked why increases in fuel prices are usually reflected immediately while reductions are delayed, Gillis-Harry said the dynamics of supply management play a significant role.

He explained: “It is mainly affected by whether the producer has additional resources or not at the time. Increases in prices are mainly caused by the need to restock. There must be that advantage pushing the price upward to be able to pay for new supplies.”

He further acknowledged that marketers generally seek to exhaust existing inventory before implementing lower prices.

“That’s the basic idea. But in petroleum, a mixture is involved, and loss is taken, though not in a way that affects the capital needed to restock,” he added.

Also speaking on the issue, energy analyst Olabode Sowunmi said fuel pricing in Nigeria is influenced by a combination of domestic supply arrangements and logistics costs, rather than crude oil prices alone.

He noted that although international crude oil prices remain an important factor globally, their impact on local petrol pricing is not always direct.

“Global price of crude oil is a factor internationally and not necessarily in Nigeria,” Sowunmi said.

Explaining that Dangote Refinery operates under arrangements that allow a portion of crude supply to be priced in naira, reducing the direct impact of international market fluctuations on local fuel prices, he said: “So basically the issue will have to be from the point of refinery to where it touches the final person. Logistics costs within the domestic supply chain remain a major determinant of the final pump price paid by consumers.”

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Obi dares opponents: I’m an open book! *Expose me, scrutinise others too!

Published

1 day ago

June 17, 2026

Whirlwindnews

Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), has given assignment to Nigerians to put all those aspiring to take up political positions in the country through the grill to ascertain their level of integrity, saying it was required as a sine qua non for the job they seek.

Obi, who has been a subject of discussion in the polity since the allegation of corruption was levied against him by Kenneth Okonkwo, spokesman of his campaign in 2023, over the conduct of the party’s primaries to choose candidates for the 2027 general elections, said the grilling must start with his own person.

A guest in an interview on a podcast with Rufai Oseni, a popular television anchor, the former Governor of Anambra State, stated that it was actually for this reason that he had now sworn to see the litigation he instituted against Okonkwo through.

His take is that the Nollywood actor should use the courtrooms to give all the details of bad behaviour, following his threat to expose him fully, after alleging that he was collecting money from aspirants in the said election for electoral favours.

Hear him: “The issue of taking Kenneth Okonkwo to court wouldn’t have arisen if he had stopped at those allegations. But he claimed he still has more he would expose about me in the future. So, I am very happy to take him to court so that he can expose me publicly, alongside other Nigerians. If any of them has any criminal allegations against me, they should bring them to court.

“Not just Kenneth, everybody should now say those things they know that is bad about me or I did that is wrong because it’s good for the system, it’s good for the society,” Obi said.

“So, if you know that when we were in primary school, this man was cheating or didn’t go to the primary school, didn’t go to secondary school, didn’t do, if you know this man has done something criminal somewhere, this is time to bring it up.”

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Lifu: This mustn’t happen again – Atiku *Judiciary mustn’t be used to destroy democracy

Published

1 day ago

June 17, 2026

Whirlwindnews

For the umpteenth time, Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has warned about the dangerous implication of using state institutions, particularly the judiciary to destroy Nigeria’s democracy, saying it is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.

Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), speaking on the heels of Tuesday’s verdict of the Court of Appeal, halting the de-registration order by the Federal High Court, insisted that judicial officers must not lend themselves to any act capable of undermining the nation’s democratic process.

The appellate court had ordered a stay of execution on the order made on Monday by Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court Abuja, for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the ADC alongside four other political parties).

A totally scandalised Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, had taken umbrage, sparing no hard words in upbraiding the lower court judge, stating that his likes were unfit to sit on the bench.

In a unanimous ruling by a three-man panel, the court held that Lifu’s action was “the highest form of judicial impertinence”, stressing that the Supreme Court previously held that a judge who acted in such a manner.

Describing his conduct as the height of judicial rascality, the upper court, stated: “Courts are enjoined to protect their integrity. This Court has supervisory authority over the trial court.

“The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution.

This court has the duty to invoke its powers in ensuring that its orders are obeyed. The application for a stay of execution is here yet granted. The enforcement of the judgment is stayed.”

Atiku, who hailed the position of the higher court, which restored his hope to be on the ballot as presidential candidate in the 2027 election, also noted the role of INEC as “significant.”

He said: “I welcome the Court of Appeal’s decision to stay the execution of the Federal High Court judgement seeking the deregistration of our great party, the ADC, and four other political parties. It is particularly significant that INEC itself initiated the application for the stay.

“The development reflects growing public concern over judicial contradictions and politically charged rulings within the judiciary. “Any attempt to undermine Nigeria’s hard-won democracy through judicial manipulation is a grave danger to the Republic. If our democracy suffers further injury, history will demand accountability from those entrusted with dispensing justice.

Outside ADC, Lifu’s order, also included: Action Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), similarly slammed for allegedly failing to meet the constitutional requirements for continued registration and participation in elections.

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