There are rumblings within the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) over the leadership style of Mr. Bayo Ojulari, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the company.
President Bola Tinubu appointed Mr. Ojulari to the position in April after retiring Malam Mele Kyari who had served as GCEO from 2019.
In appointing Ojulari to the position, President Tinubu mandated him to enhance operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boost local content, drive economic growth, and advance gas commercialization and diversification.
With this clear presidential mandate, oil industry watchers and Nigerians expected a new dawn at the national oil company. Instead, sources within the company say Mr. Ojulari’s leadership of the company is creating disaffection and stagnating movement towards the realization of objectives of the organization.
An insider told this medium that after spending 100 days as GCEO of this company, it is clear that Ojulari is incapable of providing sound leadership for the company”, a concerned staff disclosed.
Investigation indicates that Ojularin’s dalliance with controversy began upon his assumption of office. His first main step was to take members of the newly constituted board of the company on a retreat to Rwanda. He allegedly wasted millions of Naira hiring five private jets to convey the board members to the retreat which many say could have been held in-country.
Nigerians were angry at what they felt was the recklessness of the NNPCL’S GCEO at a time millions of Nigerians were struggling to feed.
Dr. Reuben Abati, former presidential spokesman, and now presenter of a popular morning talk show on television had captured the mood of Nigerians when he said on his programme:
“I find it insulting and offensive. They give you a job, the first thing you do, is you say you are going on a retreat, and you are not just going on a retreat, you are going on a retreat to Rwanda. In Kigali. Okay, so why is Rwanda the destination? Bayo Ojulari is 60 years old. He was 60 recently. He must have enough basic common sense that he cannot operate the way other Nigerians operate. You just think that this is an opportunity to live large. If he does that, President Tinubu should remove him immediately.
“What everyone was asking for is a new dispensation in NNPC, and you get there, and you people put yourselves in a private jet, in a chartered flight, and you go off to Rwanda to go and do a retreat. You can do it in Abeokuta, you can do it in Cross Rivers, and you can do it in Akwa Ibom. What are you people going to look at?”
Further Checks at NNPCL Towers also show that aside from his extravagance, most of the top management and staff of the company are embarrassed by his many flip-flops on policy issues.
Another source said; “His inconsistencies are casting the company in bad light. You will recall that in an interview with Bloomberg on July 11, he had told them that the refineries were going to be sold because after investing so much over the years to repair them, they were still not fully operational. “Then suddenly, specifically yesterday, he told us during a townhall meeting with staff that they were no longer going to be sold. How can someone speak from both sides of the mouth at the same time.
“To think that he even based his reversal decision on staff not properly briefing him, makes things worse. This is just one of many such policy summersaults we witness here,” the source said.
The top staff further said that this attitude of the NNPCL GCEO points to a more serious malady which is nothing but “incompetence”.
An online medium, forefrontng.com quoted the same staffer: “The word around here is that the GCEO is out of his depths here. He doesn’t have a grip on things. Recently, the Senate Committee on Public Accounts summoned him to explain the whereabouts of over N201 trillion allegedly not remitted to the coffers of the Federal Government. He appeared confused as the Senators questioned him.
“He was not able to answer their questions claiming he has only been in office for a short while. He begged for more time to consult with the company’s auditors who were mysteriously absent from the hearing. Is that how a GCEO should behave in the public? Didn’t he know that he was going before the Senate? As a matter of fact, the Senate has been on this matter for over two months. An effect GCEO would get proper briefing before appearing before the Senate,” the staff said.
It was further gathered that Ojulari gets so easily distracted with his social life than concentrating on the job given to him by Mr President thus, in his 100 days in office, he has not deemed it fit to visit any NNPCL facility let alone the refineries, and its other vital assets spread across the country, but instead, he has an unquenchable appetite for hosting courtesy and solidarity visitations
Highly placed stakeholders in the oil and gas industry wonder why President Tinubu settled for Mr. Ojulari as the new helmsman of NNPCL, “when it is common knowledge in the industry that Ojulari was actually dismissed and not retired from SNEPCO for graft and inflating contracts on a gas-related project”.
staff say he is yet to visit any NNPCL facility, let alone the refineries, and its other vital assets spread across Nigeria. Rather, he has an unquenchable appetite for hosting courtesy calls and solidarity visitations
Highly placed stakeholders in the oil and gas industry wonder why President Tinubu settled for Mr. Ojulari as new helmsman of NNPCL. “When it is common knowledge in the industry that Ojulari was actually dismissed not retired from SNEPCO”.
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