Buhari, be decisive on Kachikwu’s memo

The global notoriety of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation for producing more scandals than barrels of crude oil reverberated yet again with the leakage of a damning memo from the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, to President Muhammadu Buhari. Detailing improper award of contracts, unauthorised spending, sidelining of the board which he heads and lack of access to his principal, the memo is a ringing indictment of the current government and its inability to break from the disorderliness of the past in running public affairs. Buhari should take full charge, strengthen institutions and end the tyranny of cronyism and impunity blighting his government. There should be a thorough, independent and timely investigation into the crisis.

The goings-on in the NNPC are grim. The memo, dated August 30, listed a litany of bad behaviour by Maikanti Baru, the man Buhari appointed in July 2016 as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC to succeed Kachikwu who had combined the post with his ministerial portfolio. Apart from “undermining his office”, Kachikwu said since his appointment, Baru had sidelined him as minister and the NNPC board chairman by taking unilateral decisions that, he alleged, were “hindering all the envisaged positive changes for the oil and gas sector”.

This is another acid test for Buhari as the allegations are not only grave but, once again, open a window into the systemic dysfunction at the Presidency. We insist, as some stakeholders, including Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and civil society organisations, have, that Buhari order a probe into the affairs of the corporation under Baru: the allegations that contracts worth over $25 billion passed through the tainted NNPC tenders board without the full board and its chairman’s approval are grave enough to compel that Baru be sent on administrative leave until investigations are completed.

The memo clearly shows a style of governance that is at odds with modern democratic practice where the President keeps key ministers at arm’s length while ensconced with a coterie of aides who are mainly from his part of the country. This leaves ample room for intrigues, scheming and cabalism. What is the role of Abba Kyari, his Chief of Staff that he placed on the NNPC board, in the shenanigans at the NNPC? And who has been preventing Kachikwu from meeting the President to discuss issues of policy? Kyari is the clearing house for official communications, and visits to the President. Did Buhari, as substantive Petroleum Resources Minister, authorise the series of changes and management reshuffles that the board chair said he only read about on the pages of newspapers even after he had formally requested to be briefed by the GMD? If he no longer needs Kachikwu, whom he poached from the private sector, he should let him go instead of retaining him as window dressing.

The speed of change Buhari promised has been shockingly slow. The President has, in particular, failed in his promise to drastically reorganise the NNPC. He clearly stated on the hustings that it would be restructured, cleansed of its fraudulent ways and impunity. With the country still depending on oil and gas for over 80 per cent of export earnings, the NNPC has to be cleansed and reformed.

The Senate’s resolution to probe the latest allegations is not enough. This should be accompanied by forensic audits and investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. Kachikwu should be made to prove his allegations, while Baru is given the opportunity to defend himself.

Allegations made in 2014 that $11 billion was unaccounted for have not been fully probed; a probe by the Senate into missing $5.33 billion being proceeds of crude from some oil wells is not yet resolved, while the House of Representatives has looked into $24 billion of dubious crude oil swap deals entered into by the NNPC with shady companies.

Buhari bears the primary responsibility for this mess. For here is a President who came into office amid high expectations that he would tame corruption, instil order in public administration and reform the corrupt state oil company. But if Kachikwu is to be believed – and he has disdained responsibility for the leak – nasty things are still taking place at the NNPC, the disreputable oil and gas behemoth that has for long done as it pleases with revenues it earns on behalf of government. He needs to change his style of governance: Nigeria should not be run like a private enterprise. Wracked by recession, insecurity, infrastructure collapse, terrorism and divisive forces, the country needs a hands-on manager, not a detached patrician, forever surrounded by a praetorian guard of clannish personal appointees and who is hardly accessible to his own ministers. A time like this demands all hands working in tandem.

Impunity at the NNPC must end. As usual, Buhari’s languid approach has seen him fritter over half of his four-year term. But reforming the NNPC is imperative as we had canvassed before. The restructuring of the state oil company into five businesses and two service companies should be seen through. Any attempt to play down the Kachikwu-Baru row will further undermine the anti-graft war and further dent Buhari’s integrity credentials.