Why the obsession over Oando, by Michael Chibuzor

Oando, Nigeria’s biggest indigenous energy company has become a very easy target for contrived and hollow attacks from mischievous political interests.

This is the case only because the visionary entrepreneur associated with Oando, Jubril Adewale Tinubu is President Bola Tinubu’s nephew. So, all of a sudden, any conspiracy theory that any political opponent of the President wishes to make about happenings in the oil industry must touch on Oando Plc or Wale Tinubu for it to appear like a ‘major revelation’. And of course, these sore losers have a sizeable gullible audience to lap it up.

Routine business dealings of Oando Plc such as acquisitions of stakes in other companies or divestments are now interpreted by these set of mischievous commentators using tales by the moonlight narratives with many outrageous embellishments aimed at connecting whatever is happening with Oando to the President. In fact, in the thick of the Malta debacle, some had accused President Bola Tinubu of “hurriedly” removing fuel subsidy so that Oando could become the dominant player in the downstream oil sector and be free to sell imported petroleum products at higher prices.

It is both funny and sad when you realize that those pushing all these narratives know them to be false but still do so nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, the biggest voice that trying hard to create an unholy link between Oando and President Tinubu is Mr. Atiku Abubakar. Other opponents of the President naturally also joined the fray including the minions in the lot. Facts are always stubborn, thankfully. For the gullible fellows, they may be forgiven to think that Oando Plc just commenced operations on May 29th, 2023 when President Bola Tinubu assumed office. Oando history dates back more than 30 years ago when the young Wale Tinubu co-founded Ocean and Oil Group in 1993 to be an oil trading and shipping company.

The company grew to a point where in 2000 during the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo with Atiku Abubakar as Vice President and Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation, it acquired the 30% government stake in Unipetrol Nigeria Ltd. Malam Nasir El-Rufai was the DG Bureau of Public Enterprises, and Secretary, Council on Privatization who oversaw that transaction. Wale Tinubu’s Ocean and Oil Holdings later in 2001 increased their share in Unipetrol to 42%, which made them the controlling shareholder. In 2002, the company acquired 60% of Agip Nigeria Plc (the downstream arm of Agip in Nigeria) and in 2003 merged Unipetrol and Agip resulting in the formation of Oando Plc.

So, Oando was birthed during the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo who at then was doing everything possible to cripple then-Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos politically. If Oando had any ownership link with Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar’s NCP would not have contemplated selling Unipetrol to it. Yet after the consolidation of Unipetrol and Agip into Oando, the new energy company was able to boast of more than 500 retail outlets across Nigeria, Ghana, and Togo.

There are two recent investment transactions in the Nigerian energy industry, which have also been reclothed in the misinformation mill and used as propaganda against both Oando Plc and President Bola Tinubu. The first transaction is the OVH acquisition by NNPC Ltd. Atiku Abubakar rushed to town to manipulate the narrative around the NNPC-OVH deal, claiming that NNPC has been hijacked by corporate cabals around Tinubu. His evidence for this outlandish claim was his erroneous impression that Oando Plc still owned a 49% stake in the OVH acquired by NNPC Ltd, which in his thinking now gives Oando (or Tinubu’s nephew) 49% of NNPC Retail.

The agenda to rope in President Tinubu into any commercial deal in the oil and gas sector by Atiku Abubakar and his likes were so blinding to them that they conveniently forgot that Wale Tinubu’s Oando had already divested its shares fully from the said OVH to Vitol and Helios as far back as 2019. This means, neither Oando Plc nor Wale Tinubu is connected in any way to the NNPC-OVH deal that was consummated in 2022 and which Atiku Abubakar and opponents of President Bola Tinubu are wailing about in 2024.

The second transaction, which brought out the conspiracy theorists again to display their bitterness towards the President was Oando’s acquisition of Eni’s 100% stake in the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) Ltd. Atiku Abubakar once again cheerleading for the conspiracy theorists had complained that Oando is getting undue and preferential treatment in the oil and gas sector to the detriment of more competent investors. He barely attempted to hide his agenda when he asked the federal government to explain why Oando Plc, owned by the president’s nephew received accelerated approval to buy the onshore assets of Agip and Eni while other transactions such as the Shell/Renaissance and the Mobil/Seplat deals continue to suffer delays.

As usual, Atiku misfired on his conspiracy theory over the AGIP-ENI deal struck by Oando Plc. This is because Oando Plc as far back as 2014 bought its way into the joint venture in question being operated by Eni’s Nigerian Agip Oil Company when it acquired one of the companies with stakes in the JV – Conoco Phillips. With the acquisition of Conoco Philips, Oando became part of the joint venture alongside Eni’s NAOC and NNPC E&P Limited (NEPL). In other words, the JV became NAOC/NEPL/OOL (OOL being Oando). NNPC through its subsidiary NEPL holds a 60% controlling stake while Eni through NAOC holds a 20% stake with Oando holding the remaining 20%.

Eni later decided to sell off all its onshore assets. As an existing partner in the JV, Oando showed interest in buying Eni’s 20% stake in the JV, and a deal was reached in September 2023 for the acquisition by Oando. If not for political mischief, I wonder why anyone would suggest that President Tinubu tell Eni not to sell its onshore assets to Oando simply because Wale Tinubu who has been involved in the company and oversaw its growth now happens to be a nephew to the incumbent President.

Perhaps, what would have pacified conspiracy theorists is for Wale Tinubu to sell his stakes in Oando – a company he laboured and toiled to build and grow to the level it is today. A few days ago, Bashir El-Rufai wondered why Oando was making so many sales, profits & acquisitions. He added, “I wonder why it is happening now”. This is part of the innuendos I am talking about. By the above statement, one gets a sense that if it was another company that has no one named Wale Tinubu in its ownership structure, the company would have been celebrated as a model indigenous company breaking grounds but alas, there is a Tinubu in the mix. It doesn’t even matter that the first major acquisition that helped birth Oando was approved by Atiku Abubakar and of course, the highly respected public servant, Malam Nasir El-Rufai when Bashir was still a child.

If those acquisitions or sales of yesteryears were not questioned why would any Nigerian actively push a narrative against a company that has grown through acquisitions and sales to the success story it is today? As a country, we need more Oandos in our economy who can bet strongly on Nigeria. Nigerians must sift through narratives being relentlessly spearheaded by a few individuals and forces and which appear to target an indigenous company growing diligently. An expanding Oando rubs positively on Nigeria and Nigerians. Meanwhile, for those still wondering why the obsession with Oando, here goes your answer – there is a Tinubu in Oando and there is a President Tinubu in Aso Rock!

Micheal chibuzor is a public affairs analyst, editor with Podium Reporters