Nomenclature Change from NNPC (Public Corporation) to NNPC Limited (Private Liability): An X-Ray and Dissection of the Rebranded NNPC Ltd Using Rousseau’s General Will

Abstract

On the 1^st day of August, 2022, the Federal Government of Nigeria re-enacted what has become a recurrent decimal in our socio-economic landscape, adding to the number of rebranded companies that failed to deliver dividends. This time it was the prime player in the oil industry, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that got changed to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC Ltd). The assumed change casts a doubt over the claim whether the over 200,000,000 Nigerians own the new company as they did the corporation. This is why we have proceeded to dissect and probe the change in nomenclature, the public ownership, the continued interest of all the citizens in NNPC Limited, consequential corruption and administrative failures and ubiquitous shady deals. Rousseau’s general will validate the fact that the change is akin to perpetuating an elitist culture on the ownership of the new company. The examination of the general will on this company asks why it shouldn’t be subjected to the laws that regulate the oil sector. The general will has raised the vexed issue whether the transformation isn’t a chaotic morbid show of reckless power, and asks why the status of the company’s present ownership was not first discussed and agreed by the government and all the stakeholders? We try to establish that since the perceived change is nothing but a change in nomenclature, that going public is tantamount to procedural gradual conditioning the company to benefit a few influential persons, to allow the emergent firm to make an unimaginable amount of money for some people and soon go cap in hand to the Federal Government for bailout funds, confirming that it is a grand design of the government to impose a huge hoax on unsuspecting Nigerians. We recommend a sincere transformation and transition from NNPC to NNPC Limited, devolution of powers to the citizens as its owners, concession of 40% of shares of the new company now and 25% of its shares after the public offer, and full compliance with the moral law rooted in Rousseau’s general will.