Mele Kyari: Second Time Lucky

Luck be a lady, sang Frank Sinatra. By every indication, this lady knows and loves Mele Kyari, the man who has been the face of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) forever. Despite the challenges of the oil sector in Nigeria in the last year, luck shined on Kyari, letting him be reappointed as the face of the sector once again.

President Bola Tinubu has unveiled the list for the new board and management at NNPCL. Following his decision to shuffle the administrative body of the agency, many onlookers expected the president to shove Kyari under the bus, blaming him for the ills of the past year. But Tinubu did no such thing.

Kyari got another chance to head NNPCL as its Group CEO. By this reappointment, Tinubu has demonstrated his confidence in Kyari’s leadership methods and potential to turn around the oil sector, bringing relief to the nearly 250 million Nigerians. To be sure, the oil sector is challenging and Kyari has done his part since he was first appointed in 2019.

From the perspective of an ignorant outsider, Kyari has not achieved much this year as NNPCL’s boss. The price of fuel has risen many times, reaching a height so unreasonable that Nigerians have been forced to reduce everything by half. However, analysts have explained that much of the difficulties in the oil sector have little to do with Kyari, and he is only a victim of change and circumstance.

With Kyari’s reappointment, some hopes have been reignited and others dashed. President Tinubu expects Kyari to change the negative narrative, assured of his ability to do so. It is only the president’s hopes that matter now, and it is favourably on the side of Nigerians, borne on Kyari’s shoulders.