El-Rufai reacts over ethnic bias in Tinubu’s NNPC appointments

Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has responded to allegations that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is favoring Yoruba individuals in key appointments within the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).

The claims were made by Farooq Kperogi, a U.S.-based journalism professor, in his column Notes from Atlanta, published in the Nigerian Tribune.

Kperogi’s article, titled Tinubu’s Buharization of the NNPC, suggested that a Yoruba candidate is being considered to replace Mele Kyari as the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC when his tenure ends next year. He compared Tinubu’s alleged actions to those of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who was criticized for favoring northern appointees in the security sector.

El-Rufai, reacting to the allegations on his verified Facebook page, called for inclusivity and warned against repeating divisive governance patterns. He shared the article with the comment: “DECEMBER MESSAGE: Two wrongs do not make a right. Sensible inclusion always trumps arrogant exclusion!!”

In the article, Kperogi claimed that the Minister of Petroleum, President Tinubu, hails from the Southwest, while Chief Pius Akinyelure, the Chairman of the NNPC Non-Executive Board, is also Yoruba. Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum, represents the South-South. Kperogi further alleged that Seyi Omotowa has replaced Bala Wunti as the head of NNPC’s Upstream Investment Management Services (NUIMS), and Gbenga Komolafe, another Yoruba appointee, is the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

Kperogi’s source reportedly argued that appointing another Yoruba individual as GMD, in addition to the current Yoruba leadership within the NNPC and its regulatory bodies, would result in “extreme lopsidedness.” However, Kperogi acknowledged that further analysis might reveal a more balanced picture. He noted that four of the 12 members of the NNPC’s non-executive board are northerners, including the current GMD, Mele Kyari, and that three northerners are part of the senior management team.