Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has replaced the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. Ltd’s (NNPCL) CEO Mele Kyari and various other board members following concerns about the company’s performance and failure to meet vital production targets, according to Punch.

The decision was made unexpectedly on April 2, and removed an official that has been head of the state-owned oil company since 2019 – first appointed as part of an overhaul that was aimed at increasing Nigeria’s output of crude oil and gas.

New board members replacing Kyari and others at the company include Bashir Ojulari as Group CEO and Musa Ahmadu-Kida as non-executive chairman – part of a new 11-man board, according to a statement addressing the decision by Tinubu’s special adviser on information and strategy Bayo Onanuga.

“The new 11-man board has Bayo Ojulari as the Group CEO and Musa Ahmadu-Kida as non-executive chairman,” the statement read.

According to Punch, numerous presidency officials noted that the shake-up had been performance based, remarking that the NNPCL heads had been “going in circles” and had become “part of the problem rather than the solution”.

One anonymous government official said the NNPCL needed a new direction, and that the administration needed to bring new people in to do so. Regarding the new hires, the official said: “Look at them. Every one of them is capable. They are core industry professionals, real industry experts who know the industry inside and out. They are not politicians. This is the first time we have an entire cast of technocrats”. Both Ojulari and Ahmadu-Kida are engineers, with the former also being an expert in petroleum.

Another official said: “It is not about [Kyari’s] age. The NNPCL is a limited liability company and is not governed by civil service rules, so it’s not about his age. There is always a need to get new brains that can deliver in new directions”.

The source added that Nigeria needed to “optimise those that are not producing. [Tinubu] wants them to review all our assets within a certain period and give us good production. By 2030, they must be producing 3mn barrels per day, and between now and 2027, we must stabilise at 2mn [bpd]”. He also highlighted that the government aimed to produce around 10bn cubic metres of gas by 2030.

Replacing the NNPCL’s former chief financial officer Umaru Isa Ajiya will be Adedapo Segun. Six board members and non-executive board members have also been hired to represent Nigeria’s varied geographic and political zones and include former managing director of Nigeria Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) Ltd. (NLNG), Babs Omotowa.

According to Onanuga, all new appointments have been in place since last week.