*NNPC’s Operations: Interrogating Businessday newspaper’s “opacity” tag and other matters, by Olufemi Soneye

I have read the story published by Businessday newspaper in its edition of 16th July, 2024 with the headline: “‘World’s Most Opaque Company’ Stench Trails NNPC Secret Deals”. As the spokesperson of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, I would have ignored the story which was basically a rehash of false allegations that were rooted in ignorance. To be sure, the allegations, in their various shapes and dimensions, have, over the years, been proved to be untrue. But I am compelled to reply for two reasons.

First, I am mindful of the fact that falsehoods left unchallenged have always become accepted as the truth. Second, I have noticed a consistent, but worrisome trend of negative reportage verging on antagonism from the Businessday. A few examples will suffice: Between January and now, almost every report on NNPC Ltd is given a negative slant. Some, among others, went with headlines such as: “Compared to Its Peers, NNPC’s N2.5tr Profit Leaves Little to Cheer” – 29th January, 2024; “While NNPC Forages for Cash, Its Peers Pay Bumper Dividend” – 7th May, 2024; and “NNPC’s $6bn Payment Backlog Fuels Petrol Queues” – 5th July, 2024.

In the report under reference, the newspaper stated that “…non-publication of financial accounts and refusal to disclose contracts signed with oil companies may be justifying public sentiments that the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited is the world’s most opaque oil company”. The question, I ask, arising from this, is: Which financial accounts or contracts has NNPC Ltd refused to publish?

NNPC Ltd is on record to have consistently published its Audited Financial Statements since 2019. Even before its transition to a limited liability company in 2022 under the Petroleum Industry Act, it had started publishing its annual financial statements. As can be seen above, Businessday published the story of the publication of the company’s 2022 financial statement on 29th January, 2024. It is worthy to note the negative slant the newspaper gave the story. All the company’s Audited Financial Statements are published on its website. But Businessday does not and cannot see them because of its fixation on hanging the tag of opacity on the NNPC Ltd.

Keen on justifying its predetermined schema of painting NNPC Ltd negatively, the newspaper went ahead to rejig an allegation by the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, that NNPC Ltd failed to remit foreign exchange to the Federal Government, an allegation that had been proved to be false. It is a fact that NNPC Ltd, in spite of its new operational status as limited liability company, entered into an arrangement in which it remits its forex earnings to the CBN. That arrangement, which was well reported in the media, is deliberately lost on Businessday for reasons best known to it. Rather, it went to town with a spurious report on how NNPC Ltd was the opaquest company in the world.

Not done with its malicious agenda of portraying NNPC Ltd in bad light, the newspaper went ahead to cite the company’s acquisition of stake in the Dangote Refinery as another example of its opaque transactions. Riding on the recent disclosure that NNPC Ltd could not go through with the acquisition of the 20% stake it had earlier announced, Businessday came up with the allegation that the transaction was not transparent. But how could a transaction that was announced to the world when it was carried out be opaque? It is on record that when the transaction was announced, there was so much public outcry against it. Many questioned the rationale behind it. But NNPC Ltd, in keeping with its commitment to the operational philosophy of Transparency, Accountability, & Performance Excellence (TAPE), came up with explanations as to the reasons why the Federal Government directed it to acquire the equity stake, and the furore died down.

Since the appointment of Mr. Mele Kyari as the Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPC Ltd, the company has been conducting its business transparently. It is in furtherance of its transparency push that it signed up as a supporting company of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2019 to become a member of EITI’s state-owned enterprise network. With that, it upgraded its operations to meet the standard for EITI supporting companies. Since then, NNPC Ltd has not looked back in its transparency journey, publishing every information that the public should know. In the face of various allegations of financial malfeasance, NNPC Ltd has always made itself available for probes or opportunities for reconciliation of figures with other agencies of government as the case may be; and, it has always been vindicated.

But Businessday, for whatever reason(s), chose not to see NNPC Ltd.’s tremendous strides in transparency, preferring to rehash past allegations that had been proved to be false in every respect. Rather than hang the tag of opacity on a company that has shown so much commitment to transparency, Businessday, which in 2021 conferred the award of “Energy Executive of the Year” on Mr Mele Kyari, should have been more circumspect with its report that was at best shambolic. Indeed, for descending so low as to publish rehashed, stale and false stories[SO1] to justify its bias, Businessday should hang its head in shame.

As a media professional, I respect the roles of the media in society, but the point must be made that the obvious bias, exhibited in the Businessday report as well as in the various other reports before it, in which the NNPC Ltd had been cast in bad light, calls to question the professionalism of the newspaper. I therefore demand that Businessday should allow professionalism to, henceforth, guide its reportage.

I take this opportunity to make this avowal: that a new era in communication and information management has begun at the NNPC Ltd. The days of intimidating the company with falsehoods are over. Baseless and unconscionable allegations will no longer go unanswered. Through my office, we will decisively respond to any false claims made against the NNPC; and if the false claims are so egregiously damaging, necessary legal steps to preserve the integrity of the company will be taken. The time for passive acceptance of allegations that are lurid and ridiculous had passed; it is time to stand firm in defence of the truth exemplified in the NNPC’s operational philosophy of TAPE.

■ Soneye is Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPC Limited.