I honestly cannot fathom why anyone, basing their judgement on intellectual arguments alone, can truthfully accuse President Bola Tinubu of having a Yorubacentric agenda for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the financial sector.
I would have ignored this shoddy piece of propaganda were it not for the fact that no less a personality than the former Governor of Kaduna, Nasir el-Rufai, elected to peddle this ethnic baiting dog whistle.
Coming from him, that fallacy cannot go unchallenged.
The facts do not support that argument. Even if it were true that President Bola Tinubu is considering the appointment of a Yoruba Northerner as Group Chief Executive Officer, it would still not be accurate.
Let us consider the facts. Please find below a breakdown of the current management of the NNPCL
Chief Pius Akinyelure: Non-Executive Board Chairman-Southwest
Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari: Group Chief Executive Officer-Northeast
Adedapo Segun: Chief Financial Officer-Southwest
Mr. Ledum Mitee: Non-Executive Director-South-South
Mr. Musa Tumsa: Non-Executive Director-Northeast
Mr. Ghali Muhammad: Non-Executive Director-Northcentral
Prof. Mustapha Aliyu: Non-Executive Director-Northwest
Mr. David Ogbodo: Non-Executive Director-Southeast
Ms. Eunice Thomas: Non-Executive Director-South-South
Now, if you look at the board of the NNPCL, whose members are listed above, only two board member are from the Southwest.
Now, let us look at those who have direct executive oversight authority over the NNPCL.
Heineken Lokpobori: Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil)-South-South
Ekperikpe Ekpo: Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas)-South-South
Ambassador Nicholas Agbo Ella: Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources-North-Central
From the above, how can anybody honestly project to the Nigerian people that President Tinubu is Yorubacentric in his appointments at the NNPCL? It beggars belief.
If there is any dominance at all, then that hegemony is in favour of the South-South, who are the most represented on the board and cabinet-level with authority over NNPCL. Then you have the Northwest, Northeast, and North-Central.
Now, even if you want to go to the ridiculous extent of scrutinising those in the lower cadre of the NNPCL, you will find that, with the exception of possibly two positions, all of those posts were filled by General Buhari.
Therefore to say that a Yoruba heads every consequential agency in finance in Nigeria is not only without basis, it is capable of causing the type of market ripples that negatively affect the All Share Index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
When you mention finance, you use a broad brush that includes revenue-generating agencies. And the highest revenue-generating agencies in Nigeria are not the Central Bank of Nigeria or the Ministry of Finance.
In Nigeria, other than the NNPCL, the Nigerian Ports Authority, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, the Nigerian Communication Commission, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, and the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation are the top five revenue earners for the Federal Government. Please fact-check me.
Only two of these six agencies (when you add NNPCL) are headed by people from the Southwest.
The CEO of the NNPCL, Mele Kyari, is from the Northeast
The CEO of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Abubakar Dantsoho, is from the Northeast
The MD of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Mrs. Olubunmi Oluwaseun Kuku, is from the Southwest
The CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Aminu Maida, is from the Northwest
The CEO of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Dayo Mobereola, is from the Southwest
The CEO of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, Bello Hassan, is from the Northwest
Flowing from the above, where is the Yorubanisation or Yorubacentricity? If you see it, can you please show it to me?
I wonder why, in a country already on edge because of the false allegations made by the siege mentality infected Nigerien leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, anyone would choose this time to further raise the ethnic tensions that are quick to flare up in the world’s most linguistically diverse nation that is also the largest Islamochristian country on the planet. What is their agenda?
It could escalate and lead to ethnic violence and killings. It is most uncharitable to engage in such practices when the nation is already divided along regional lines on the issue of the Tax Reform Bill.
It is the same way that some persons attempted to gaslight the country of a Yorubanisation of the military and security services until I broke down the ethnic and regional identities of those at the helm of these bodies.
Not counting the Chief of Defence Staff, who is a Northerner, there are twenty Military, Security, Police and Law Enforcement agencies in Nigeria. And twenty-one men head these agencies. Out of that twenty-one, only five bodies are headed by the Southwest. Not only does the bulk of that number rightfully go to the Northwest, but that geopolitical zone also occupies the choicest portions.
The so-called Yorubanisation or Yorubacentricity of government under President Bola Tinubu is a myth. And if anyone chooses to push this discredited theory, Nigerians should not just accept broad accusations without data and statistics.
Ask that person to provide stats. If he or she cites a sector, they should give Nigerians a regional breakdown of everybody in that sector rather than making broad statements to paint a manipulative narrative that is neither creative nor supportive of our national growth.
