DAN KUNLE, OIL MINISTER TIMIPRE SYLVA’S POWERFUL BEHIND-THESCENES ADVISOR

摘要

Timipre Sylva, who has been Nigeria'sCabinet Minister of State for PetroleumResources since August 2019, has hiredvery few people with whom he close.However, the former governor of the oilrichBayelsa State until 2012 can counton the off-the-record help of one manwho he fully trusts: Dan Kunle. Kunle,who hails from the Kogi State where hewas one of the founders of the People’sDemocratic Party (PDP), in power from1999 to 2015 in Abuja, for many yearsworked in a senior role at the Bureau ofPublic Enterprises (BPE). He was incharge of handling the windup of NigeriaAirways’ activities. Kunle has extensiveexperience in the oil sector, for whichhe was appointed the technicaladvisor to the minister of statefor energy (gas) EmmanuelOlatunde Odusina during PresidentUmaru Yar’Adua’s tenue from2007 to 2010. He was involved in the writingof the minister’s gas master plan.Sylva’s unofficial advisor can draw on anextensive network of contacts, havingbeen a board member of telecommunicationsfirm NTel alongside the formerminister of defence and close friend ofMuhammadu Buhari, TY Danjuma.