President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has dissolved the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited board, removing its Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari and board chairman Pius Akinyelure.
Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga announced the sweeping changes, effective April 2, 2025, in a statement early Wednesday posted on X.
Meet Kida, ex-basketballer
According to the statement, the new board chairman, Ahmadu Musa Kida hails from Borno State and is an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he received a degree in civil engineering in 1984.
He also obtained a postgraduate diploma in petroleum engineering from the Institut Francaise du Petrol (IFP) in Paris. He started his career in the oil industry at Elf Petroleum Nigeria and later joined Total Exploration and Production as a trainee engineer in 1985. Musa became Total Nigeria's Deputy Managing Director of Deep Water Services in 2015.
"Last year, he became an Independent Non-Executive Director at Pan Ocean-Newcross Group. Apart from his oil industry career, Kida is a former basketballer and the president of the Nigerian Basketball Federation(NBBF) board," the statement added.
Ojulari
Bashir Ojulari, the new NNPCL GCEO, hails from Kwara State. Until his new appointment, He was Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy Company which recently led a consortium of indigenous energy firms in the landmark acquisition of the entire equity holding in the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), worth $2.4 billion.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Ojulari is also an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, according to the statement. He graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked for Elf Aquitaine as the first Nigerian process engineer to begin a stellar career in the oil sector.
From Elf, he joined Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd in 1991 as an associate production technologist. Apart from working in Nigeria, he worked in Europe and the Middle East in different capacities as a petroleum process and production engineer, strategic planner, field developer, and asset manager.
"In 2015, he became the managing director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO). During his career, he was chairman and member of the board of trustees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE Nigerian Council) and a fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers," it added.
