Ojulari, like Mr Giwa, is a trader

WHEN Yoruba want to address a perplexity, they can reach for “oro buruku tohun terin” (tragicomical) or resort to another wisecrack, “oro so sini lenu o bu iyo si, iso re ko se ponla, iyo re ko se tu sonu (a bitter-sweet), which elaborately translates as a matter simultaneously stuffing the mouth with salt and fart, you can’t down the fart for its fetidness and won’t want to spit out salt for its sweetness.

If someone called in for a mend, further messes a mess, Yoruba will call his kind “atorose boro je”. The one expected to straighten things up has further mangled it. In just about 100 days under the management of Bayo Ojulari, Nigeria’s gang-raped, malnourished but still dripping cash cow, the national oil company, NNPCL, is reportedly bursting at the hems with unprecedented scandals, culminating in the multiple interrogations of the somewhat-new CEO, by anti-corruption agency. For a leadership to become that enmeshed in just three months and a few days of operation is a record even in a scandal-ridden Nigerian public service.

In the course of one of the several petrol scarcity bouts Nigerians endured under now-late Muhammadu Buhari’s impotent presidency, his soft and smooth-talking oil czar, the immediate head of the Nigerian State oil company, Mele Kyari, was in Lagos to brainstorm with media gatekeepers. Yours truly was in attendance in representative capacity, just as in many of such “sessions” I was privileged to attend during the almost six years he was Group CEO of NNPCL. His tenure ran from 7th July 2019 to 2nd April 2025 when the Tinubu administration justifiably terminated him.

Before I return to the Mele tori, I should quickly point the proximity of his first name to the Aramaic “Mene” which means “numbered”. Daniel interpreting it to King Belshazzar in the Bible took it together with “Tekel and Upharsin” to declare an end to the king’s reign and the division of his vast kingdom. Maybe someday a real Daniel will come to judgement to implement the MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN long etched on the oily walls of NNPC by the hand, screaming transparency.

So Kyari got a large turnout despite the biting scarcity and he was his mesmerizing self until the questions started flying. Then he stunned the gathering with the claim fuel was available, using some complicated slides, charts and pictures, including some tankers waiting at some only-God-knows point. So why aren’t getting to buy at filling stations?, practically everyone in attendance queried. Then he began another round of some oily talk about Tompolo, subsidy, the approaching 2023 presidential election, loading depots, landing cost etcetera. Long story short, Kyari couldn’t point any of the senior journalists to any pump in Lagos to get a drop of petrol despite his repeated assurance that there was fuel in the country. I left the meeting running on my last drop. I branched a couple of filling stations on my way home; they reported zero supplies. I quietly asked myself if anyone would believe I just left a meeting with the man in charge of Nigeria’s oil industry. Then, a radio station began a funny analysis of “the fuel situation in the country” with some fellows attempting to deconstruct what they knew practically nothing about as studio analysts. There was nothing they were saying, at least, in the direction of the verifiable data Mele provided us, despite obviously withholding the information about the real reason available fuel wasn’t in circulation; the coming withdrawal of subsidy, which stakeholders thought would be phased, until some strange spirit possessed Tinubu at his inauguration and he decided to pin everyone down for a furiously charging earthmover to roll over. May God forgive Mr. President.

I simply switched off the car radio while laughing at myself in self-pity. Imagine just sipping coffee with the man that should make available what is badly needed and still left the diner scratching your head where to get it. That day, I concluded that all the streams (up, down, mid) in the oil sector are only for those initiated into the cults running it, to swim. Nigerians are their maga or mugu or mumu. But those pressing the mumu button should be careful. Every day is for the thief. The imminent one day for the owner may come with catastrophic consequences, considering that the oil thieves are already stealing too much for the owners to see.

Tinubu eventually applying the Mene, Mene phrase to Mele, would always be a good call, especially if Ojulari, his replacement, eventually clawed the corporation from the cesspool it has been mired for decades to public trust. Those who thought they knew the Yoruba man from the North wagered he could and would when he was resuming office. Are they still that confident now?

But as sneaky as the oil business was, under Mele, what can’t be denied him was his messaging ability even when lying (like most politicians) or just being politically correct, as noticed during his off-record pressers in the build-up to the poll when he would drop the microphone, switch off the sound system, to sound off on what each of the three leading candidates in the election represented for the sector. You could hardly figure his choice of the trio though deducible reasoning would suggest his readings of the poll numbers and the election as Tinubu’s, to lose. His soundbites I won’t share here, since the sessions weren’t originally for the public. Despite being a geologist, Kyari seemed to have mastered the art of public speaking, a deficit that is beginning to look major for his successor. If his “I’m a Northerner and will forever seek the greater good of the region despite being of Yoruba ethnic stock” inaugural speech could be excused as a baby-step misstep, his flip-flop on issues of policy, the emerging pattern of profligacy, disregard for institutional accountability (though legislative probes are mostly avenue for jumbo lucre), opacity in massive spendings, poor prioritization in the face of an urgent need for reform and fresh beginning, among other meltdowns and letdowns, are pointing to Ojulari not showcasing the desired fidelity to the screaming change the oil sector needs.

Just within 18 days in the exited July, he had done the shifty Schiff thing (like Trump will describe his congressional Democrat nemesis Adam Schiff) on a policy as defining as the privatization of the refineries, which according to a report in Premium Times he is yet to visit after more than three months in office, despite being the largest asset of the corporation he was brought in to superintend. What manner of leader is one who prefers junketing to irrelevant places like Kigali for a retreat that a more insightful one would have held inside the boardroom of the Port Harcourt refinery to demonstrate a bonding with what he is entrusted to fix. But no, Mr. Kigali must hire multiple private jets to the capital of Rwanda for a retreat about how to save refineries in Nigeria. Are we sure the trip wasn’t actually about those chiseled-neck East-Central African belles, considering the reported vexed mood within the corporation about some female assistants and all that? Is Ojulari now the fictional Mr. Giwa, the trader, whose only methodology is to sell or not?

Many industry watchers and stakeholders actually staked on his leadership to be some salt to the system, ushering the country into a new era of accountability and prosperity. Despite my skepticism, I also found his aura graceful. He didn’t come, cutting the image of the prodigal he is projecting now. His appearance too can be magnetic, making him an instant sweetheart. Like his predecessor, he is also beginning to roll out fantastic profit figures even if the refineries are almost back to being moribund, which he explained as being put too early into use while still under repair. He has also cried out about being targeted for a brutal takedown by some unmasked principalities.

While the office he holds would always attract envy and schemings for replacement opportunity, he is also not helping those who bet their names on him, including the appointor, to be a fresh breath. What he has left in the mouth of Nigerians so far is a mixture of salt and fart. While no one wants to volley out the salt, who wants to lick the putrid? A detour isn’t too late.

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