NNPC, Dangote Group Feud: Nigeria Now Laughing Stock – Ezekwesili

By Ayodele Oni

Former Education Minister and former Vice President of the World Bank’s Africa Region, Oby Ezekwesili, has revealed reactions of international business community to the ongoing feud between the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC)and Dangote Group.

She stated that it has turned Nigeria to a laughing stock in the full glare of local and international investing community.

Ezekwesili, while commenting on her X (formerly Twitter), questioned why a project with the intent of attaining the stature of a national interest is marred in the depth of embarrassing controversy.

Her comment read, “I kept from commenting on the Dangote refinery-NNPC saga to stay true to my mantra that evidence should always inform our opinion.

“However, as more and more information filtered out from both parties, we can reasonably conclude that something seriously murky has gone on and needs to be fully unravelled for public accountability. And urgently too.

“How can a project that by all definition attained the stature of a ‘national interest project’ be marred in this depth of embarrassing controversy that is playing out in the full glare of the local and international investing community?

‘When we were in government, I often told the @nnpclimited leadership that they cannot carry on as though there is a ‘Federal Republic of the NNPC’ just because they think of themselves as ‘the goose that lays the golden egg’.

“The opacity of the NNPC was reason we took great delight in designing the Multi-Stakeholders Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency International @nigeriaeiti in those early 2000s that I pioneered as Chairperson.

“We went above global minimum voluntary standards of transparency requirements by entrenching ours in an Act that established NEITI as the Transparency Regulator of the Oil and Minerals sector.

“The @NGRPresident owes a duty to Nigerians to immediately use the instrumentality of NEITI to launch an Independent Audit of the Dangote Refinery- NNPC transactions in order to offer the public the true state of play. It is in the National Interest to do so.”