By Newsmata
A radical rejig in the composition of the leadership structure has taken place at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sacking the group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the company, Mele Kolo Kyari, and the Non-Executive Chairman of the board, Pius Akinyelure.
The far-reaching restructuring was announced in a State House press release dated April 2, 2025, signed by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
President Tinubu also sacked all other board members appointed with Akinyelure and Kyari in November 2023 and named a new 11-man board which has Engineer Bashir Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Ahmadu Musa Kida as non-executive chairman. All the appointments are with immediate effect.
Handing out an immediate action plan to the new board, President Tinubu charged them “to conduct a strategic portfolio review of NNPC-operated and Joint Venture Assets to ensure alignment with value maximisation objectives”. He also set for the new board, a target of 200,000 barrels per day crude oil refining capacity by 2027 and a challenging 500,000 barrels per day by 2030.
Emphasising that the board’s restructuring which in exercise of the powers granted him under Section 59, subsection 2 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, President Tinubu posited that it “is crucial for enhancing operational efficiency, restoring investor confidence, boosting local content, driving economic growth, and advancing gas commercialisation and diversification”.
According to Onanuga, “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”.
In the new structure, Adedapo Segun, who replaced Umaru Isa Ajiya as the chief financial officer last November, has been appointed to the new board by President Tinubu.
Six board members, non-executive directors, represent the country’s geopolitical zones. They 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.
President Tinubu also appointed Austin Avuru as a non-executive director from the South-South, David Ige as a Non-executive director from the South West, and Henry Obih as a non-executive director from the South East.
Mrs. Lydia Shehu Jafiya, permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, will represent the ministry on the new board, while Aminu Said Ahmed will represent the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
All the appointments are effective today, April 2, according to the presidential spokesman.
Newsmata recalls that the Kyari, the former GCEO, was first appointed into the position by former President Muhammadu Buhari on July 7, 2019, and was reappointed by President Tinubu November 28, 2023, while the appointment took effect from Friday December 1, 2023.
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.
Thanking the old board members for their dedicated service to NNPC Limited, particularly their efforts in rehabilitating the old Port Harcourt and Warri refineries, which, he noted, enabled them to resume petroleum product production after prolonged shutdowns, President Tinubu wished them well in their future endeavours.