By Bamidele Atoyebi

They have started passing the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited , NNPCL Managing Director, Bayo Ojulari through the fire. We however pray that it refines and not scorch him; that is Nigeria for you, especially where reforms have been introduced.

With the way he hit the ground running, normal thing would have been to draw applause from the general public or at least those who know and understand his drift in the industry; but sorry, because these are no normal times. People had been removed and replaced where the wheel of their approach to service had been running smoothly whether it was the right way or not, so Ojulari has come under the cross hairs of political archers and from all indications, he has become their toy with which they practice moving target.

I pity him because, like he cried out earlier, he is actually totally a technocrat who is sure footed on his tracks but unfortunately, performance is not all his attackers care about, they care that the feeding bottle of sleaze and lucre be left in place so they can continue the way it was touching them.

Nigerians seem to have allowed him to be tossed in the wave of his traducers most of who are threatening his life with his team while openly boasting they were going to sack him from the position as according to them, he does not have direct access to Mr. President. Though not one given to many words or frivolity, he cried out that "I’m not hiding from anybody. I’m not a politician. I will have to learn a bit more about politics, but for me, it is a development plan, and I’m ready to learn". The right question is what hit him so hard that he has cried out to the public? They are giving him the treatment of an orphan whose parents are staying miles away from. Though Mr. President is in the same city with him, he cannot see him at will to explain his own side as.even an attempt to see the boss will take him through those making demands on him.

Ojulari has become like the proverbial crab whose in-laws demanded he works for them same time and hour his god sent him on an errand. If he honours his in-laws, his god will take his life and if he honours his god, the in-laws will take his wife so that head or tail he will encounter a loss.

He set out to stop the bleeding of the behemoth and those negatively affected are kicking. If one says it is corruption fighting back, it will be a well worn cliche but those who are fighting him seem to know full well that he is not a politician and doesn't have direct access to him who has the right to hire and fire him. By his outburst that he is not a politician and would have to learn a bit of it shows they are putting his leg to their fire.

One can easily remember that few weeks after resuming office when he pruned the staff of the oil company, brickbats started flying immediately to the extent that our Lawmakers started issuing threat of arrest on him after hastily issuing him with summons to come and answer to alleged nonremmittance of trillions of Naira and dollars he was never part of.

If Ojulari was a politician, he would not only have known where it was coming from but how to tackle it. To him, all he had to respond was get the papers and explain even when he was not there when the transactions took place. Standing on the premise that government is a continuum, they started dragging him. Those summoning him were in those committees throughout the period of the transactions but because they were touched in their perceived right way, they saw no evil and spoke no evil but now someone not playing their game is on the saddle, they have put on their attack armours and are firing him from all cylinders.

It is trite that if truth be told, there is no wrong Ojulari has done. They expect continuation of how it was yesterday which was to the detriment of the common good of Nigerians.

All these queries and spurious allegations attend to one simple truth, Ojulari is plugging the loopholes of their sources of free funds. It has really been a baptism of fire. There is nothing he does that is not brought to the open with very dangerous embellishments that cast him in very poor light. It is so bad that his every movement is given political colouration and tickets tagged to opposition Politicians so that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would feel he is working with the opposition and fire him. However, it appears the President is seeing through their plot and schemes, but for how long? His traducers are really rubbing his name in the mud even when in his innocence, he is only doing the right things, transparently accounting for all and declaring profits which are expeditiously remitted to the federation account.

Even ordinary movement of staff to new positions was put across in the adverserial media as putting his cronies in position. What his detractors don't know is that they are drawing the nation back by not allowing a technorat who knows to put Nigeria on track for the much expected and needed development.

They should please cut Ojulari and his team some slack so Nigeria can breath in use of their God-given resources to attend to their needs and not allow the flow to continue being channeled and funnelled into their private pockets from which they live and loom.large. Ojulari is innocent and still as clean as pin.

Bamidele is the National Coordinator of Accountability and Policy monitoring, Convenor of BAT Ideological, and publisher at Unfiltered and Mining Reporting