NEARLY four months after the inauguration of President Bola Tinubu, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) still parades the image of former President Muhammadu Buhari as the country’s leader.
Buhari vacated office after handing over power to Tinubu on May 29.
As of the time of filing this report, Buhari’s image remained on the website as president – under the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) section.
The former president’s image is attached to the company’s executive mandate, a short message titled “The Federal Government of Nigeria’s commitment,” which summarises efforts by the country to stop gas flaring.
“Gas flaring is unacceptable, and the FGN (Federal Government of Nigeria) has continued to support several initiatives and actions to reaffirm its commitment to ending the practice of gas flaring in our oil fields.
“In demonstration of its commitment, the FGN ratified the Paris Climate Change Agreement and is now a signatory to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) principles for global flare-out by 2030 whilst committing to a national flare-out target by the year 2025,” the message read.
The NGCFP was introduced by Buhari in 2016 to achieve zero routine flaring by 2035 and create room for investors to be involved in utilising gas released in the course of oil production.
Although the programme was on hold for a while, it was relaunched in October 2022, and on September 13, the NUPRC announced that 42 bidders were selected for the process.
Apart from Buhari, NUPRC’s website also has an image of its former head, Timipre Sylva, with the caption “Minister of State for Petroleum Resources” attached.
Sylva served as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources between 2019 and 2023 under former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and has been replaced by Heineken Lokpobiri, currently serving in that capacity.
The country also got its pioneer Minister of State for Gas, Ekperikpe Ekpo, under the current administration.
Both ministers assumed office nearly a month ago, on August 21.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.