By Temitope Ajayi
By his advanced age and eminent status as a former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is by no means qualified to be an elder statesman. Statesmen are highly venerated and revered people to whom we go for advice, guidance and direction.
But sometimes, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar behaves as if he should be removed from that exclusive club. Or how else can one interpret some of his utterances and statements? Or is the former vice president merely playing politics? But politics should have its season and time and should sometimes give way for nation-building and patriotism. Statesmen are not given to flippancy. Neither are they whimsical. They are measured in words and deeds, a quality that Alhaji Atiku has not demonstrated in public discourse since losing the last presidential election as the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Alhaji Atiku, obviously still stung by his electoral loss, can not see that a person of his profile must make interventions decorously and decently.
As a former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku self-denigrates when he makes interventions that eschew basic decency and without weighing how such unguarded outpourings portray the country and the implications for businesses and state institutions.
firmly pushed back against Atiku’s tissue of lies thus:
“At the time NNPC Ltd acquired OVH in 2022, Oando (in which Mr. Wale Tinubu has equity interest), had fully divested its equity in OVH to the two other partners – Vitol and Helios. Oando began its divestment in 2016, with Vitol and Helios coming in as equity partners, leading to the name change from Oando to OVH. In 2019, Oando fully divested its equity interest in OVH, resulting in Vitol and Helios holding 50% equity interests, respectively.
“Upon acquisition of OVH by NNPC Ltd, NNPC Retail Ltd and OVH effectively became subsidiaries of NNPC Ltd. However, based on professional advice and sound commercial considerations, NNPC Ltd opted to merge NNPC Retail Limited into OVH, and then retain NNPC Retail Limited as the company name post-merger. The first step of merging NNPC Retail Ltd into OVH has been completed, and the post-merger renaming of NNPC Retail Ltd is ongoing. Contrary to the false alarm, neither Wale Tinubu nor the President has any interest in the OVH acquisition.”
Providing more significant details and clarity on the OVH/NNPC deal, Mr Femi Awoyemi, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of Proshare decried how political actors like Alhaji Atiku pursue personal political agendas at the expense of the economy and public good, arguing that “players seeking to push self-interested agendas must come with evidence and not innuendos.”
Mr Awoyemi averred: “Despite misgivings about an entity, I, as a member of the governance community, understand that it is unhelpful if we allow misrepresentations to replace objectivity and accountability.
its intention to assign 100% of its issued shares to Seplat Offshore Energy Limited. NUPRC did not consent to this assignment because Mobil should have obtained a waiver of pre-emption rights and the consent of NNPC. The matter was held up in court in Suit No: FCT/HC/BW/173/2022 Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited versus Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited, Mobil Development Nigeria Inc., Mobil Exploration Nigeria Inc., and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission. The transaction could not have been concluded until the parties resolved the dispute.
According to the statement by NUPRC, NNPC and MPNU resolved their dispute in June 2024, and MPNU, by letter dated 26 June 2024, informed the regulator of the resolution of the dispute. Upon resolution of this dispute, the Commission communicated its no-objection decision to the assignment via a letter dated July 4, 2024, and requested MPNU to provide information and documentation required under the Commission’s due diligence checklist to enable the Commission to conduct its due diligence as required under the PIA. MPNU, by letter dated 18 July 2024, provided the information requested by the Commission.
Accordingly, MPNU’s application to the Commission for consent is undergoing due diligence review under the same divestment framework applied to the NAOC-Oando and Equinor-Chappal divestment. The Commission’s due diligence process is ongoing and within the 120-day timeline required by the PIA.
Unfortunately, Alhaji Atiku ignored the facts above in the transactions to make a mountain out of a molehill as part of his grand design to misinform the public and continue his needless war of attrition against President Tinubu.
The PDP presidential candidate has elected to seek and push darkness. Where Alhaji Atiku and others like him see only despair, President Tinubu will continue to work toward building a virile society and a buoyant economy while holding on to the promise of a greater Nigeria.
-Ajayi is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity
