A Niger Delta youth group, the Niger Delta Youth Coalition for Progress and Peace (NDYCPP), says it plans to honour the Group Managing Director (GMD) of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, for creating opportunities and enthroning transparency and probity in the Corporation.

NDYCPP noted that before Kyari assumed office as the GMD of NNPC there were a lot of unresolvedissues that tended to hamper the oil sector from achieving its full potential.

They said that with the coming on board of Kyari, he has convinced industry watchers of the new direction of the NNPC by keeping the financial books open transparently for public probity which have changed the opacity in the system.

The group’s National President, Tiedo Olayinka, made these known in a statement in Yenagoa on Sunday.

He said the NDYCPP plans to honour the GMD during its forthcoming Niger Delta Youth Entrepreneur on Oil and Gas Summit in December in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

According to the group, the summit is aimed at preparing entrepreneurs and youths from the Niger Delta region to harness opportunities provided by the policies of NNPC under the watch of the incumbent GMD.

NDYCPP said it sees Kyari as a visionary and professional manager with a towering repertoire of the inner workings of the industry, having served in various positions over the years.

The experience, they noted, makes him the right man to head the NNPC, adding that he has effectively deployed his wealth of experience to bear by efficiently repositioning NNPC.

Listing some knotty issues which Kyari has deployed his wealth of experience to resolve, NDYCPP said:

“The NNPC has transformed from opacity to Transparency, Accountability, Performance and Excellence (TAPE).

“Before his assumption of office as the GMD of the NNPC, there were a lot of unresolved and knotty issues lingering and hampering the Sector from achieving its potential.

“From then lingering Petroleum Industry Bill, which is now the Petroleum Industry Act,constitution of board to superintend one of its break-up units.

“The OML 25 impasse at Kula in Akuku-Toru LGA of Rivers State between Belema Oil, the Community and Shell SPDC which has been now resolved amicably and operational activities have resumed in earnest.

“NNPC financial books have never been opened transparently for public scrutiny over the years but the coming on board of Kyari has changed all of that opacity and nebulousness in the system.

“Not quite long when Mele Kyari assumed office, the stifling Covid-19 pandemic hit the world economy which adversely affected the petroleum industry real hard, the price of crude oil droppedsharply in the International market which affected our revenue earnings drastically but with resilience and careful handling of affairs, we were able to come out stronger.

“The investment issues surrounding Train 7 of NNLG in Bonny, Rivers State, about the concerns of the partners which have also been tactfully resolved and operations are going on smoothly.”

The group maintained that industry watchers and stakeholders in the sector could attest to the fact that Kyari has surpassed all his predecessors for the past 20 years when this democratic dispensation started in 1999 to date.

“Therefore, Niger Delta youth leaders have concluded plans to confer on Mele Kyari an Award of Excellence in Public Probity as the GMD of NNPC in our forthcoming Niger Delta Youth Entrepreneur on Oil and Gas Summit sometime in December this year in Port Harcourt,” the group announced.

The statement commended President Mohammadu Buhari, for appointing an outstanding and astute industry technocrat as the Group Managing Director of NNPC.

The group enjoined the GMD of NNPC to sustain his good works as posterity shall surely hold him in high esteem as his record of service delivery will certainly be a golden reference point in the annals of the petroleum industry sub-sector.