EDITORIAL: NNPCL’s reckless disregard for Senate oversight

 

Checks and balances are tools of good governance in any democracy. Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, as amended, therefore, is replete with provisions where the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary arms have been empowered to give effect to this principle, for the public good.

Sadly, the National Assembly’s duty to discharge this critical responsibility has become an illusion, due to the unwillingness of government agencies to be subjected to scrutiny where necessary. Two recent notorious cases, which involve the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), are embarrassing and quite telling on the integrity level that is brought to bear on the management of the country’s most strategic asset.

As enshrined in Section 89 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, the National Assembly is empowered to have “oversight” of or “investigate” any matter it has the power to legislate on, while Section 88 (a) is its enabler to issue a “warrant to compel the attendance of any person who, after having been summoned to attend, fails, refuses…” to do so.

Not willing to tolerate the NNPCL’s unremitting breach of this constitutional provision, the Deputy Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream), Allwell Onyesoh, staged a walkout of a meeting, penultimate week. The agency’s top management had repeatedly ignored summons to crude oil theft hearing sessions. Besides, the oil sector governance framework is undergoing a review aimed at strengthening it; hence the necessity of its presence at legislative sessions.

The senator charged, “They keep writing letters saying they are travelling to Congo; travelling here and there, just to dodge simple things. Was the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) appointed to keep travelling or to work? Is Nigeria’s problem outside the country or here in Nigeria? How is it possible that the Group CEO, his deputy, directors and the entire management are all travelling at the same time?”

The Senate committee needs the NNPCL to submit records, documentary evidence, and answer crucial questions that might arise from documents tendered before it. However, the committee has continued with its deliberations, despite these absences. A legislative output on this critical review of the oil sector governance framework without NNPCL’s input will be like a jigsaw with missing parts.

Undoubtedly, the Senate Petroleum Resources Committee’s work logically flows from the findings of its ad hoc committee investigating oil theft and forensic audits, chaired by Ned Nwoko. Its damning interim report submitted in November 2025 uncovered $22 billion, $81 billion and $200 billion missing revenues at various times. It cited weak oversight and sabotage as responsible for the gargantuan losses.

Attacks on oil export terminals and pipelines are routine in Nigeria. And the heist in the sector was described by Chatham House, a United Kingdom think-tank, in its 2014 report as being “on an industrial scale.” In a point-blank manner, it listed “politicians, military officers, militants, oil industry personnel, oil traders and communities” as the perpetrators.

Perhaps, NNPCL may have been perversely influenced by how it has, since July 2025, evaded summons to account for ₦210 trillion in oil revenue between 2017 and 2023, before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, until recently. It dodged the summons for months before its current Group CEO, Bayo Ojulari, appeared and pleaded for time to understand the issues as they preceded his tenure.

The Auditor-General of the Federation flagged the expenditures with 19 queries that spanned the tenure of Mele Kyari as the GCEO of NNPC, as it was then called. The details involved comprise ₦103 trillion in accrued expenses, and ₦107 trillion (about $117 billion) in receivables. Nigeria doesn’t have up to half of this amount in its Foreign Reserve. The NNPCL claims that it paid ₦103 trillion in cash calls to Joint Ventures in 2023.

But “cash calls arrangements were abolished in 2016 under the Buhari administration.” Naturally, this raised eyebrows from the committee, chaired by Aliyu Wadada. He queried, “How can NNPC claim to have paid ₦103 trillion in one year, when it only generated ₦24 trillion in revenue over five years?” The ₦107 trillion receivables were also questioned. The national oil behemoth stated that part of this was held in defunct banks. “However, no bank or amount was named,” Mr Wadada retorted.

Nobody needs the Wisdom of Solomon to understand the reasons for these equivocations and the NNPCL positions that do not add up. Mr Wadada was emphatic a few months ago that the ₦107 trillion receivables contradict available facts and evidence the NNPCL had earlier submitted to the committee.

It is galling that the unaccounted for ₦210 trillion, flagged by no less an authority than the Auditor General of the Federation (AGoF), is being trifled with. This makes absolute mockery of the country’s fight against corruption, and it is highly morally offensive in a country with over 139 million people living below the poverty line. Agonisingly, Nigeria constantly borrows abroad, while it is adamant about blocking leakages that would have curbed such obsession.

Here is a critical reminder: Public Accounts is the only legislative committee entrenched in the Constitution because of its absolute necessity in checkmating fiscal excesses like this. Former NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari’s appearance before the committee is absolutely critical. Hence, our federal lawmakers need to hone their skills in the oversight of the public treasury. In the US, for instance, Congress demands a monthly report on the balance sheet of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which releases a statement of account on the Disaster Relief Fund on the 5th of every month.

PREMIUM TIMES holds the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, responsible for NNPCL’s litany of affronts on the legislature. The Senate has powers, as cited above, to carry out its oversight functions in the overall public interest. Yet, tepidness and compromises appear to override its sense of duty.

With its behaviour so far, the NNPCL is setting a bad precedent for other MDAs. This is evident in the disregard for invitations of the Senate Committee on Finance to account for internally generated revenues between 2023 and 2025, prompting the Senate’s Thursday plea to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for its management to appear before it.

Shambolic scaffolds of governance, such as these, explain why Nigeria’s maritime waters are a playground of rogue oil ships, which include the super tanker, MT HEROIC IDUN, belonging to a Norwegian firm. It entered our waters in August 2022 and headed for Akpo Oil Field without any documentation or clearance from the authorities.

Obviously, the NNPCL’s disregard for accountability negates all that President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda stands for. As the putative Minister of Petroleum Resources, he should break his silence on this concern now.