The Integrity Youth Alliance has condemned the call for a probe of the former Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari.
In response to the protests organised by the Guardians of Democracy and Rule of Law, along with the Concerned Citizens Against Corruption, Kelvin Adegbenga, the National Coordinator of the Alliance, stated that Kyari’s legacy is being unfairly targeted. He described the protests as a coordinated campaign of defamation.
“He has consistently achieved results by managing the commercialisation of NNPC and cultivating partnerships that boost investor confidence.
“His commitment to improving transparency at NNPC Limited, demonstrated by Nigeria’s compliance with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), has set a new benchmark for governance in the oil and gas industry.
“The only Nigerian firm to publish all of its financial documents every year was NNPCL, which Kyari led. The corporation was the nation’s largest taxpayer. These were emblematic of Kyari’s drive for transparency soon after he assumed control of the business in 2019.
“The goal of the Transparency, Accountability and Performance Excellence (TAPE) initiative was to overhaul the oil giant, which had been beset by inefficiencies for a long time. Kyari started the Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) under TAPE, which became a regular and widely read publication. It provided the Nigerian public and the global community with hitherto unheard-of insights into the operations and performance of the country’s oil firm.
“Undoubtedly, Kyari’s crowning achievement has been the revival of Nigeria’s decades-long moribund refineries. Under his leadership, long-stalled production activities at the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries have roared back to life, with the Kaduna Refinery beckoning.
The Alliance called on Nigerians to ignore the sponsored protest by some disgruntled oil interests against Kyari, as they forgot that he earned commendation from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative for his transparency and accountability
