FT: Abba Kyari was about to lead Nigeria’s oil sector reform

The Financial Times of London says Abba Kyari, the late chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, was close to launching oil and gas sector reform before his death.

Kyari died from COVID-19 complications a week ago.

The president’s right-hand man had tested positive for the disease after a trip to Germany where he attended a meeting with officials of Siemens to discuss issues relating to the Nigerian power sector.

In an article entitled “Abba Kyari, chief of staff to the president of Nigeria, 1952-2020: A self-effacing intellectual who rose to the very centre of power” on Friday, FT said his death has left a vacuum in a time of uncertainty.

“He was close to launching long-delayed initiatives to restructure the notoriously underperforming oil and gas sector,” the pink newspaper wrote.

Buhari last year pushed for the deep offshore and inland basin production sharing contract (DOIBPSC) which was passed into law by the national assembly.

Kyari was believed to be the moving spirit behind the law which gives Nigeria more share of the revenue from offshore and inland basin production.

The much-delayed petroleum industry bill (PIB) is being pushed by Buhari after he refused to give assent o the petroleum industry governance bill (PIGB), a modified version, passed in 2018 by the national assembly.

TheCable understands that Kyari was working on a version believed to be “more fabourable” to Nigeria in fiscal terms.

FT further wrote: “He was acutely aware of the dilapidated state, and limited capacity, of the public administration in Nigeria. Yet, his experience in business also made him wary of a private sector too often defined by a parasitic relationship with government.

“He was sceptical about liberal market solutions to Nigeria’s many problems, in the absence of the rule of law. That tension underlay much of his time in office, as he rebuffed advice, from the IMF among others, to curtail a controversial exchange rate regime.

“He leaves behind a vacuum in a time of uncertainty, with the price of oil, on which Nigeria depends for export earnings, in free fall, and the world beyond paralysed by the virus that took his life.

“His friendship with the president went back to before the coup that first brought Mr Buhari to power in 1983, and he stood by the former general during three fruitless attempts to gain power at the ballot box, a passionate supporter of his anti-corruption agenda.”

The Economist, in its write, said Kyari tried to “clean up” Nigeria before his sudden death.