THE newly appointed Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Melee Kyari, on Monday, took charge as the boss of the national oil company.

With this appointment, Kyari joins the long list of Nigerians who had held sway at the NNPC since Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999.

The ICIR profiles the eleven Nigerians who have managed Nigeria’s state-run oil firm from 1999 to date.

Jackson Gaius Obaseki (May 1999- November 2003)

Gaius-Obaseki served as Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, from May 1999 to November 2003. He hails from Edo State and graduated from the University of Ibadan, having studied Geology.

He joined the NNPC in 1972 and rose through the ranks until he was appointed Group Managing Director of the corporation in 1999.

Obaseki changed NNPC’s external oil marketing strategy and, acting on President Obasanjo’s order, he announced the cancellation of all annual sales contracts for crude oils and fuel oil. Obaseki’s aim was to cut out the middlemen and limit term contracts to bona fide end-users and large volume traders.

Funsho Kupolokun (November 2003 – December 2007)

Born in 1947, he holds a first degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Lagos where he studied as a Shell scholar in 1971.

He was on training attachment to the Algerian National Oil Company where he worked as Production Engineer in Sahara Desert Oil field of Hassa-Messand from 1973 to 1974 before joining the Nigeria National Oil Corporation currently the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.

Occupying strategic roles within NNPC, which includes Head of Special Projects in the NNPC JV, Head of Petroleum Engineering Department, Group General Manager and Head of NNPC’s London office, Group Executive Director, Commercial & Investment.

He was instrumental in developing a fiscal policy document famously known as MOU, to salvage the economy when a crash in oil Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, price structure resulted in low prices.

The structure guaranteed a steady income for the country and encouraged operations to thrive for the low operating cost to promote efficiency in the industry and earnings from oil operations.

Appointed as Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Petroleum Matters in 1999, he was subsequently appointed the Group Managing Director of the Corporation in 2003 to drive the reform of the oil & gas sector until he was relieved of his appointment in 2007.

Abubakar Lawal Yar’Adua (August 2007- January 2009)

Abubakar Yar’Adua was born in July 1949 in Katsina State. He never worked anywhere outside the NNPC after joining the Corporation as a member of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, at the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, in 1976.

A graduate of Chemical Technology from Sofia University, Bulgaria in 1974, from where he also obtained a Masters degree in 1976. Yar’Adua rapidly rose to become Executive Director of KPRC in August 1995 and then Managing Director from June 1999 to January 2000.

He was the Executive Director, Refining and Petrochemicals of the NNPC before he was appointed to run the affairs of the corporation.

Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo (January 2009- April 2010)

Born in April 1959. Barkindo who hails from Adamawa State bagged a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from Southeastern University in Washington, DC.

He served as Deputy Managing Director of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, a joint venture between NNPC, Shell, Total and Eni. Earlier in his career, he was Special Assistant to former Minister of Petroleum Resources and OPEC Secretary General, Rilwanu Lukman.

Barkindo also worked in several key roles at OPEC between 1986 and 2010. In 1986, he was appointed to Nigeria’s delegation to OPEC, and from 1993 to 2008, served as Nigeria’s National Representative on the Organization’s Economic Commission Board.

From 2009 to 2010, he served as Group Managing Director of the NNPC,

Shehu Ladan (April 2010- May 2010)

He holds the reputation as the shortest tenured GMD of the NNPC, considering he was fired 7 weeks after his appointment by President Goodluck Jonathan.

After his call to the Nigerian bar, Ladan’s NYSC primary assignment was the State Ministry of Justice, Kano. He proceeded to serve as Staff Solicitor of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria. He was also Legal Adviser Kaduna State Rural Electrification Board, REB, and Assistant Director Federal Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Jos.

Ladan was appointed as Commissioner of Education in 1987. In 1989, he was appointed Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice. He moved to the oil and gas sector in 1990 where he held various positions then rose to become NNPC’s Group General Manager of Human Resources in 2004.

In 2006, he was appointed the Deputy Managing Director/CEO of Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, Ltd, a joint venture company that has NNPC, Shell, Total and Agip as shareholders.

In April 2010, he was appointed the Group Managing Director of the NNPC after he took a brief recess from the industry.

Austine Oniwon (May 2010- June 2012)

Oniwon who hails from Kogi State was born on April 1, 1951. He holds a bachelors degree in Chemistry from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

He started his working career with the NNPC in 1977 and rose to become Head of Planning at the Warri Refining and Petrochemicals Company in 1987. From 1988 to 1991 he was the technical assistant to the Group Executive Director, GED, Downstream and later Head, Engineering and Technical Services Department, ETSD, of Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company from 1991-1992.

Oniwon was General Manager, GM, Information System, Engineering and Technology Directorate before moving on to function as Senior Technical Assistant to the GMD and GM, Information Systems Department at the GMD’s office.

He was appointed GMD of the NNPC in May 2010 and retired having attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 in 2011.

READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/gmds-of-the-nnpc-who-had-managed-nigerias-oil-cash-cow-since-1999/

No nyamuri flat.head there!! Osu caste system and bia.fraud war survivors cant be trusted with money bcuz of their antecedents in Malaysia, Indonesia, India etc

FTC btw, I dedicate this to Ojukwu's grave

Obasanjo- used southerners as NNPC throughout his tenure

Yaradua- change it to Northerners till his demise

Jonathan - reverse it to southerner

Buhari -used southerner and reversed it back to Northerners, but Buhari is not allowed to do so

Hypocrites

Cash cow indeed....
The corruption in NDDC is a child's play compared to the corruption in NNPC but because it is a government of the North and controlled by the Presidency, it is shrouded in secrecy.
I strongly believe that all government agencies with the 'C' (CORRUPTION) is jinxed.