“If you shut up truth and bury it underground; it will but grow and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it burst through, it will blow up everything in its way” – Emile Zola, 1840-1902.

I never thought President Tinubu would ever sack Mele Kyari. A few days before the announcement, a friend of mine and regular reader called me and during our discussion asked: “Dele, are you sure those in power read what you write and take them seriously?” He was referring specifically to the articles I have written about the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, and its Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari – who, in my opinion, was the worst officer ever to hold that position. Virtually every statement made by Kyari on important matters turned out to be wrong. Some, like 2 million barrels per day crude oil production, were deliberately misleading. The consequences of serial deception of Presidents Buhari and Tinubu are incalculable and destructive; because most of the failures of the annual budget have their origins in the illusions Kyari had foisted on our leaders since 2019. Perhaps it was a mere coincidence that my article titled, FG, PRIVATE REFINERIES IN MUTUAL SELF-DECEPTION, appeared two days before he was sacked. The following assertions were made then: “The most obstinate illusions are ultimately broken by facts – Trevor-Roper, 1914-2003.

When Dangote Refinery, two weeks ago, announced that it would no longer sell fuel to marketers in naira; and, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, simultaneously pronounced the end of naira-for-crude arrangement, it was clear to some of us that the illusions with which Nigerians have been living  since 2023 had been broken by the facts which had always been at our disposal; but which we chose to ignore. Alhaji Dangote, before establishing his gigantic refinery, must have consulted with the topmost leaders of the Buhari administration and the NNPCL; who promised him that he would have all the crude oil to run his refinery – whose capacity is 650,000 barrels per day.  President Buhari, who doubled as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, must have been one of them. Indeed, when in May 2023 Buhari commissioned the Dangote Refinery, which was far from being ready to produce fuel, Nigeria’s Head of State re-affirmed the readiness of the Federal Government to supply all the crude the refinery would need. It was a colossal executive lie.”

The article ended as follows:

 “Four, disbelieving Kyari, Mr Heineken Lokpobiri and the FG, when they issue assurances is the beginning of wisdom.

Five, Nigerians should accept that the promise of domestic sustainable fuel sufficiency will continue to elude us as long as we have serial dissemblers in charge of our petroleum sector. Mr Heineken was still telling participants at an event in January this year that Nigeria would soon be pumping out 2mbpd of crude – even when daily production figures in January gave the lie to the announcement. Primary school arithmetic could have proved to all of them that 650,000 to Dangote and 445,000 barrels to NNPCL’s refineries are incompatible with Nigeria’s current fiscal and monetary programmes.”

MELE KYARI WILL NOW KNOW HIS TRUE FRIENDS

 “The yes-man is the enemy. Your true friend will argue with you; fight with you” – Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, 1918-2003.

Mele Kyari, like most Nigerian top office holders, was not immune to the flattery which some of media men heap on such fortunate men. Almost everyone wants to be on their good books – for obvious reasons. Unless they are naturally abrasive, the parade of praise singers is endless. Giant strides are always being made by those known to be generous. You must be self-assured to criticise them; and even your criticism might not be published. For every critic, there are ten ready to swear on their mother’s grave that the officer is a top performer – until the man leaves office for any reason. Then, he will discover how few friends he had. One example will help illustrate the loneliness of the ex-top official. When was the last time you read anyone in the media or heard on television or radio commending Godwin Emefiele, former Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN? In the first quarter of 2022, a group of people took out a series of advertisements in all the newspapers and some television stations urging the man to run for President. The Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, RIFAN, paid N100 million for his nomination form. Some members of his ethnic group joined the call for Emefiele to run. Each and everyone of the associations or individuals based their position on the wonderful work he had done as CBN Governor; how he single-handedly saved the economy from Buhari’s incompetence; made Nigeria almost self-sufficient in rice production etc, etc. Critics, like me, were regarded as nuisance; and Emefiele himself might have regarded us as enemies. Today, as he is dragged from one court to another; faces several cases and more might be on the way, he must be wondering: Where are my friends? Where were the Youths asking Emefiele to run? Has RIFAN been disbanded? Why are they not ready to testify in court to his greatness in order to balance out all the negative stuff prosecutors are setting out – rightly or wrongly – to bring a disastrous end to what should otherwise have been a glorious career? I pity Mele Kyari. If he is indicted by a deep probe into NNPCL accounts, he will discover how few friends he really had. Some have stopped calling already. The first to vanish will be his media “admirers”. The “pot of gold” has dropped from his hands into Ojulari’s lap. It is not in the interest of bounty hunters to defend an ex-officer and antagonise the fellow now able to pay. The decent beneficiaries of his generosities will not attack him directly. But, not all. He should be prepared to, henceforth, read and hear things about himself which he never thought will see the light of day. Falling off mount Everest is not easy.

PA IRO OMORODION, 1939-2025, HONOURABLE JOURNALIST

“Everyone calls himself a friend, but, only a fool relies on it. Nothing is commoner than the name; nothing is rarer than the thing” – Jean De La Fontaine, 1621-1695.

Have you ever had a friend, who you never met, talked to almost every week on the phone for over 12 years? Pa Iro Omorodion, who passed on recently and would be buried on Friday, April 11, 2025, was the second of such associations that I have been privileged to have. The first was Cecil Jones, a Jamaican artist; who was my pen friend from 1965 to 1997; before he too left me feeling empty. Pa Omorodion, incidentally, was a well-established Nigerian journalist; who, by any measure known to man, was very good and successful. Unfortunately, about the only person alive who would remember him is Chief Segun Osoba, former Governor of Ogun State. But, before Osoba became Governor, he was Editor of the HERALD Newspapers; owned by the Kwara State Government. State newspapers, in those halcyon days, were professionally managed. That was why it was possible for Osoba, an Abeokuta man, and Iro, from Bendel State, to work for a Northern paper. Omorodion, however, stayed longer than Osoba. Before Herald, he had worked for defunct Morning Post for six years; New Nigerian Newspapers for a year; before putting 17 years into the service of the HERALD. Altogether, he had been in media for 26 years; rising from Reporter to Line Editor; before spending sixteen years as a Special Assistant to Dr S. O. Ogbemudia, the Governor who made Bendel great – during the Gowon administration. 

Our friendship started from him; when one Sunday he called to discuss my column that day. He partly agreed; partly disagreed but in each case he outlined his reasons in a professional manner. He was back the next Sunday and the next and the next…At one point, I decided not to pick his calls; but he persisted. Then, it dawned on me that I was listening reluctantly to someone who was an encyclopaedia on Nigeria’s political history – especially the years 1964 to 1974 – when I was away in America. He became my teacher and my Librarian; who was giving me free tutorials which enriched my articles immensely. Conscious of my ignorance of what happened during the Civil War, 1967-70, I called and relied more on his knowledge and experience as a Reporter and State Editor. Few people realised it, but, the people of the Midwest, later called Bendel, and much later, divided into Delta and Edo, suffered more than anybody else. They were brutalised by Biafran soldiers on their way to Ore; and ravaged again when Igbo soldiers were in retreat. Federal troops in pursuit of the fleeing Biafrans added heaps of salt upon Mid-Western injuries. Bendelites were the real victims of a war started by others without their consent. Pa Omorodion taught me that heart-rending lesson; and, it should not die with him.

Finally, the friendship blossomed to the point where not receiving his call or calling him meant my Sunday was not complete. I never felt closer to a person who I never met. Now, I can understand why Ogbemudia, a hard task master, who did not suffer fools gladly, kept him for sixteen years. He is such a rare gem, a beautiful soul that I wish he lived for ever – for my sake, if not for anyone else. May his gentle soul rest in perpetual peace.