Breaking: Tinubu sacks Kyari, appoints Bayo Ojulari as new NNPC CEO

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reconstituted the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, appointing a new chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) while dissolving the previous leadership.

The overhaul sees the exit of former board chairman, Chief Pius Akinyelure, and Group CEO, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari, along with all board members appointed in November 2023.

President Tinubu has appointed Ahmadu Musa Kida as the new non-executive chairman and Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO.

The newly constituted 11-member board also includes Adedapo Segun, who retains his position as Chief Financial Officer.

Representing Nigeria’s geopolitical zones are non-executive directors Bello Rabiu (North West), Yusuf Usman (North East), and former NLNG managing director Babs Omotowa (North Central).

Others are Austin Avuru (South-South), David Ige (South West), and Henry Obih (South East).

Additionally, Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya from the Federal Ministry of Finance and Aminu Said Ahmed from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources will serve as representatives of their respective ministries.

All the appointments are effective today, April 2.

According to a statement issued in the early hours of Wednesday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu made the appointments under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, emphasizing that the restructuring is necessary to enhance operational efficiency, restore investor confidence, boost local content, and accelerate economic growth.

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.

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.

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.

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, Ahmadu Musa Kida is a former basketballer and the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation(NBBF) board.

Ojulari, the new NNPC Limited Group CEO, hails from Kwara State. Until his new appointment, he was 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.

Apart from working in Nigeria, he 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).

During his career, he was chairman and member of the board of trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.

President Tinubu thanked the old board members for their dedicated service to NNPC Limited, particularly their efforts in rehabilitating the old Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which enabled them to resume petroleum product production after prolonged shutdowns. He wished them well in their future endeavours.