When N30bn Budget Padding Request Tears Lokpobiri, Wabote Apart

An alleged refusal by the former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Simbi Wabote to pad the 2024 budget of the agency by N30billion has set him on a collision with the Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, who has not only debunked the allegation, but also attempted to discredit the enviable heights attained by Nigeria in local content practice as attested to by oil and gas industry operators and several countries, Ejiofor Alike reports

A recent attempt by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, to discredit one of the greatest achievements recorded in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry in recent years has set him on a war-path with the immediate-past Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Wabote.

The signing into law of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGICD Act) on April 22, 2010, by former President Goodluck Jonathan was a game changer as it has since increased the participation of Nigerian manpower and facilities in the oil and gas business.

The NOGICD Act, which established the NCDMB, also seeks to ensure the domiciliation of a greater chunk of the yearly industry spend in-country and curb the capital flight that had characterised the operations of the industry. 

Since the establishment of the NCDMB, a large chunk of the yearly expenditure is increasingly being retained in Nigeria as more Nigerians now participate in the oil and gas business, which was formerly dominated by foreign manpower and facilities.

Lokpobiri stirred up a hornet’s nest while responding to questions at the Petroleum Club’s Dinner held recently in Lagos, where he alleged that the NCDMB under Wabote made bad investment decisions, claiming that over $500 million invested in private companies through equity and loans were wasted investments.

The minister also alleged that over $190 million invested by NCDMB in private projects, including the Brass Fertiliser Plant and the Atlantic Refinery, all located in Bayelsa State, were wasted as no construction was going on at those two sites.

Expectedly, the minister’s allegations were largely ignored by the oil and gas industry players, who fingered Bayelsa State politics as the motive, in view of the verifiable success recorded by the 14-year-old NCDMB.

Wabote was removed from office three years into his second tenure in December 2023, after he had completed his first four-year tenure in September 2020.

In reappointing the ex-NCDMB boss for a second tenure in a statement issued in November 2020, former President Muhammadu Buhari had noted that: “Wabote won his pips for managing the Nigerian Content Development Fund prudently, completing the headquarters building of NCDMB, and also initiating many landmark projects that are widely commended by industry players.”

Both Lokpobiri and Wabote are from Bayelsa State where the minister is engaged in a political supremacy battle with his predecessor, Timipre Sylva, who was Wabote’s major backer during his unfinished second tenure.

While firing back at the minister on Tuesday, Wabote, debunked the minister’s allegations that he wasted $500 million investments.

Apparently referring to the cold war between Lokpobiri and Sylva, the former NCDMB boss noted that the minister was using him to fight a proxy war with his one-time principal and former petroleum minister.

He alleged that his problem with Lokpobiri started in December 2023 when the minister sent one of his undocumented aides to Wabote’s office in Yenagoa requesting him to increase NCDMB budget by N30 billion for the office of the minister, which he rejected.

He accused the minister of making reckless utterances, recalling how the minister had at the same event, indicted NNPCL by claiming that Nigeria was losing 400,000 barrels of oil per day because of not signing the Seplat-ExxonMobil asset sale and purchase deal.

The minister, Wabote said, is acting like a “militant activist” instead of canvassing the government’s position or representing his principal correctly.

Wabote recalled that in August 2023, he had led the management of NCDMB to provide a full briefing of the board’s activities to Lokpobiri and the Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo.

He said the presentation, which was contained in more than 250-page slides, provided information on the status of the board’s projects, partnerships, intervention funds, among others.

 According to Wabote, the minister was fully briefed that it was because NCDMB was not a bank that made the board to partner the BOI as a foremost development bank in the country, to manage the intervention fund, with each loan secured by bank guarantee.

The fund, he said, was intact when he left office, as could be verified from BOI.

On the projects, Wabote said the board’s presentation to the minister on Brass Fertiliser Plant clearly informed him that the partnership arrangement with NNPC and DSV Engineering was for the establishment of a 10,000TPD Methanol plant.

“It is therefore false that the partnership was for ‘fertiliser factory’.

“Perhaps, Mr. Lokpobiri should have checked with the Hon Ekperikpe Ekpo, the Hon Min of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas) and NNPCL for details of the project and the latest developments rather than the false accusations to castigate NCDMB.”

Providing the current status of the 15 projects partnered by NCDMB, Wabote revealed that one had been inaugurated and operational which is the Waltersmith Refinery in Imo State.

He said five are ready for inauguration, four under construction, four in search of debt financing, including Brass Fertilizer plant, and one under divestment considerations, which is the Atlantic Refinery.

He implored the minister to visit the construction sites to avail himself of facts on ground.

Wabote also advised the minister to separate the requirements of the office from his political ambition.

However, in swift reaction, the Minister’s Special Adviser, Media and Communication, Nneamaka Okafor, insisted that they stood by their principal’s earlier position that under Wabote, over $500 million of the industry’s fund was wasted in equity investments in private establishments and in loans that were now non-performing.

Reacting to the allegation of budget padding request, Okafor said: “Our position is that he who alleges must prove the same. So, if Mr. Wabote has proof of such conversation, he is challenged to provide the same.”

THISDAY has however gathered that the NCDMB’s NCIF Fund with the BOI is currently performing in excess of 90 per cent payback rate.

In a brief note sent to THISDAY, on the status of the NCIF Fund, a top official of BOI, who declined having his name in print, said over $300 million and over N43 billion had been disbursed to more than 70 beneficiary companies.

Oil and gas industry stakeholders had also agreed that the NCI Fund opened doors for access to finance to key local players and stakeholders in the oil and gas sector.

Industry stakeholders have also wondered why the minister wanted to discredit the laudable Nigerian Content initiative of the federal government because of the local politics of his home state of Bayelsa.