The Nigerian Senate has thrown down one of the most consequential accountability challenges in the country’s oil sector history – summoning former NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari to explain alleged financial discrepancies totalling N210 trillion recorded between 2017 and 2023.
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts, chaired by Senator Aliyu Wadada, issued the summons last Thursday after what the committee described as “unsatisfactory and unacceptable” responses from the national oil company to 19 audit queries. The committee did not mince words: appear before us, or face arrest warrants.
The staggering N210 trillion figure breaks down into two components. The first is N103 trillion recorded as accrued expenses in NNPCL’s 2022 audited financial statements – listed broadly as retention fees, legal fees, and audit fees, but without specific figures assigned to any of those items. When pressed, NNPCL said the amount represented cumulative spending by joint venture partners under the cash call arrangement.
The committee rejected this outright, pointing out that the joint venture cash call regime was abolished in 2016, with the change taking effect from January 2017 – the exact start of the period under review.
The second component is N107 trillion recorded as sundry receivables as of December 2023. NNPCL claimed part of this was owed by various banks and other entities but failed to identify which institutions were responsible or how the debts arose.
Together, the committee says the two figures represent money that the national oil company has simply not accounted for properly.
The N5.8 Billion Name Change
As if N210 trillion were not enough to process, the committee also flagged an eyebrow-raising N5.8 billion reportedly spent to rebrand from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited – essentially adding a single letter to the name.
Senator Wadada, appearing on Channels Television over the weekend, described the spending as “criminal,” explaining that it involved a double charge: NNPC charged N2.9 billion from petroleum product proceeds, while NAPIMS simultaneously charged another N2.9 billion for the same purpose. “Putting the figures together made it N5.8 billion to just add L to the NNPC. How then do we accept this?” he asked.
Kyari is not the only former official expected to answer questions. The committee also summoned former Chief Financial Officer Umar Ajia Isa and former NAPIMS Group General Manager Bala Wunti. They are expected to appear alongside the current NNPCL management, led by new Group CEO Bayo Ojulari, as well as the external auditors who prepared the financial statements during the period.
The committee has also recommended that the Office of the Auditor-General conduct a full forensic audit of NNPCL’s books from 2017 to 2023, in line with Section 85 of the constitution.
Wadada has dismissed suggestions that the probe is politically motivated, insisting that the committee’s only interest is transparency in the management of public funds. But the scale of the figures – N210 trillion is roughly four times Nigeria’s entire 2026 federal budget – means this investigation will inevitably become a political flashpoint.
Public reaction has been predictably heated. On social media, Nigerians have pointed out that N210 trillion could fund hospitals, schools, and infrastructure on a transformative scale. Whether the Senate committee can translate its summons into real accountability – or whether this becomes another high-profile probe that fizzles out – will depend entirely on what happens when Kyari and his former colleagues finally take their seats before the panel.
