Just when Nigerians began to hope for genuine reform at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the organisation has once again drawn public ire, this time for flying its board and senior management to Kigali, Rwanda, for a corporate retreat.
A Familiar Wasteful Pattern
At a time when citizens are reeling from economic hardship, rising petrol costs, and the collapse of purchasing power, the state oil company has chosen luxury over restraint. Under the leadership of new CEO Bayo Ojulari, many expected a shift from the culture of excess and opacity that characterised the company’s past. Instead, the Kigali trip feels like a painful continuation of business as usual.
This is not the first time NNPCL executives have indulged in overseas retreats. Just last year, the former leadership, under Mele Kyari, took a similar journey to Qatar. Now, it’s Kigali, with no meaningful justification presented to the Nigerian public. The question remains: would executives from Rwanda’s national oil company travel to Nigeria for a strategic meeting? Likely not. Yet NNPCL’s top brass continues to globe-trot at the country’s expense.
Public Resources, Private Comfort
It’s not simply about geography. It’s about timing, responsibility, and the optics of a taxpayer-funded company engaging in high-end travel during a national crisis. Inflation is biting. Fuel prices are high. Youth unemployment is growing. Nigerians are asking for leadership grounded in empathy and fiscal discipline, not photo ops in foreign conference halls.
Worse still, not one board member is reported to have objected to this excessive decision. That silence says a lot.
Leadership Under Pressure
More troubling, however, are the quiet rumblings from inside NNPCL itself. Sources suggest that Ojulari is yet to fully assert his leadership. There are whispers of internal resistance and indications that the CEO may be struggling to rise above entrenched power structures that have long dominated the corporation.
The recent resignation of the Chief Corporate Communications Officer is said to be linked to these internal tensions. Reports indicate that Ojulari has avoided confronting the vested interests that continue to wield influence behind the scenes. In essence, the system may be overwhelming him, just as it did his predecessors.
The President Must Act
President Bola Tinubu must pay close attention. Nigerians deserve to know: Is the new NNPCL chief equipped to steer the company into an era of transparency and accountability? Or is he simply inheriting a broken playbook and dressing it up with new language?
True transformation doesn’t begin in Kigali. It starts here—at home—with bold leadership, clear priorities, and a commitment to ending waste. For now, the signs are not encouraging.
Until the company proves otherwise, what we’re seeing is not reform. It’s a rebranded version of the same excesses that Nigerians have long grown weary of.
