By any honest measure, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) bears one of the most damaged public reputations in the country. For decades, vast oil revenues have flowed alongside entrenched poverty, polluted communities, broken social contracts, and a persistent failure to translate extractive wealth into shared national prosperity. Trust in the institution has been eroded not by perception alone, but by lived experience. In this context, any attempt by NNPC to recast itself through human-centred narratives away from barrels, balance sheets, and secrecy, inevitably invites hard scepticism. The question Nigerians now ask is not merely what is being done, but whether these interventions are commensurate with decades of extraction, whether they will outlive press releases, and whether they genuinely redistribute opportunity rather than manage public discontent.

In 2025, the NNPC Foundation became unusually visible in Nigeria’s media space. Through a wave of high-profile interventions, from restoring sight to thousands of cataract patients, to extending health insurance to vulnerable fuel attendants, and training smallholder farmers in modern agricultural practices, NNPC appeared to be making a deliberate statement. It was reaching for Nigerians who, for decades, had only heard of oil in terms of barrels, profits, and corruption, but had never directly felt its benefits in their daily lives.

While Nigerians have heard promises before, there appears to be an attempt to show evidence, voices, faces, and outcomes. Across farms, clinics, classrooms, and rural town halls, those voices are beginning to surface.

From subsistence to survival with dignity
In Ilora, Oyo State, farmer Adekunle Ogunleye does not speak in corporate language. He speaks in yields. “For years, I planted maize the way my father did,” he said, standing beside his small plot. “No fertiliser plan, no water control. Sometimes rain would destroy everything. What we learnt here opened our eyes.”

Ogunleye is one of thousands participating in the NNPC Foundation’s vulnerable farmers training programme, which targets thousands of smallholder farmers nationwide. The programme focuses on modern, climate-smart agriculture, improved seed varieties, soil management, pest control, irrigation efficiency, mechanisation, and post-harvest handling.

At the Abuja flag-off for the North-Central cluster, Managing Director of NNPC Foundation, Emmanuella Arukwe, framed the intervention bluntly.

“Food inflation, unemployment, and low productivity are connected problems,” she said. “If farmers remain trapped at subsistence level, Nigeria remains food insecure.”

Her assessment reflects a national emergency. Over 75 per cent of Nigerian farmers still operate at subsistence level, while food inflation continues to erode household incomes. In Kogi, Kwara, Benue and the FCT, like it was done for the six geopolitical zones, the training drew farmers who said this was the first time anyone had invested in how they farm, not just what they grow.

Still, Mandate Secretary for Agriculture at the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Ibrahim Yaro, issued a caution. “We must be honest,” he told participants. “Training without discipline fails. If you sell your starter packs or abandon your farms, this effort dies.” His warning highlights a recurring weakness in many CSR programmes, where interventions are not followed through. Training alone does not guarantee transformation unless supported by credit, storage, access to markets, and security. The NNPC Foundation’s approach may be sound, but scale and sustainability remain the test.

Health interventions that restore dignity
In Bosso Low-Cost, Minna, Fatima Mohammed Sallah struggled for years with failing eyesight. “I was seeing darkness before,” she told The Guardian, moments after her cataract surgery. “Now I see light. May Allah reward those who helped us.”

Fatima was one of over 500 beneficiaries in Niger State alone under the NNPC Foundation’s free cataract screening and surgery programme. Nationwide, the Foundation is targeting thousands of surgeries across all six geopolitical zones as part of efforts aimed at addressing one of Nigeria’s most neglected public health crises.

According to Niger State Commissioner for Secondary and Tertiary Health, Dr Bello Tukur, cataract remains a silent epidemic. “We have a backlog of over 5,000 adults with cataract in Niger State,” he said. “About 500 new cases emerge every year.”

For Dr Halima Isah, Chairperson of the State Eye Care Programme, the intervention filled a critical gap.
“Most of these patients cannot afford surgery,” she said, adding that “Without help, they lose productivity, independence, and dignity.”

Similar stories echoed in Zaria, Bayelsa, and Yenagoa. At the Zaria flag-off, Kaduna State Commissioner for Health, Umma Ahmed, described the programme as “life-changing”.

“This initiative restores not just vision, but dignity and hope,” she said, noting its alignment with the state’s health equity agenda.

Childhood cancer and the power of early detection
Perhaps the most emotionally charged intervention unfolded in Etim Ekpo, Akwa Ibom State, where over 1,000 children received free eye screening during a rural childhood cancer sensitisation programme led by the Akanimo Cancer Foundation in partnership with NNPC Foundation.

The Akanimo Cancer Foundation itself was born from tragedy. Dr Idorenyin Usoh, its National Coordinator, lost her 12-year-old son to cancer in 2019.

“His death birthed this fight. We want families to know that childhood cancer is not a death sentence,” she said. 

Nigeria’s childhood cancer mortality rate remains among the highest globally, largely due to late diagnosis and fatalism. 

National Coordinator of the National Cancer Control Programme, Dr Uche Nwokwu, speaking on the issue said: “Not my portion’ thinking kills children. Once detected early, childhood cancers are among the most curable.”

NNPC Foundation’s support, through awareness campaigns, screening, and referrals was praised by health officials and local leaders alike.

But deeper collaboration is important if the figure will translate to impact.

Supervisory Councillor for Health in Etim Ekpo LGA, Udosen Monday said there is a need for sustained partnership to strengthen rural health centres.

Here, the Foundation’s impact lies not only in numbers screened, but in narratives disrupted to challenge fear, stigma, and silence.

Education, ambition, and unfinished business
In Gwagwalada, Abuja, the donation of STEM textbooks and mini libraries to the School for the Gifted was warmly received. But gratitude came with honesty.

“We appreciate these books,” said Malam Adamu Bello, the school’s principal. “But we lack computers, internet, and ICT tools.”

While the NNPC Foundation has distributed over 40,000 STEM textbooks nationwide, educators insist that books alone cannot bridge Nigeria’s digital divide. The intervention opens doors, but what lies beyond them remains uncertain.

Similarly, the empowerment of 531 NYSC members with business starter packs and grants drew applause.

At the Abuja ceremony, NNPC Ltd. Group CEO, Bashir Bayo Ojulari, represented by Roland Ewubare, framed it as a promise kept. “A tailor cannot sew on the roadside forever,” Ojulari said, announcing grants of N531,000 per beneficiary.

For many recipients, it was the first institutional support they had ever received. Yet entrepreneurship without mentoring, infrastructure, and market access remains fragile.

Environment, responsibility, and contradiction
NNPC Foundation’s environmental agenda, tree planting in the North, CNG-powered buses to reduce emissions, signals alignment with ESG principles and climate discourse. 

Arukwe said the Foundation plans to plant one million trees over two years to combat desertification.

Environmental advocates, however, urge caution. Tree planting must survive beyond ceremonies. Maintenance, community ownership, and accountability are critical, especially for a company whose core business still fuels environmental degradation.

Corporate citizenship under scrutiny
The restructuring of the NNPC Foundation represents a shift from episodic charity to structured social investment. Its alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, local content development, and host community needs is deliberate. But credibility is earned, not announced.

While most of the beneficiaries across the interventions show appreciate, Nigerians hope that they are truly remembered when the cameras are gone. This can help strengthen the fragile trust at the heart of corporate citizenship in Nigeria.

The interventions have restored sight, improved farming practices, empowered youths, and challenged fatalism around disease. The voices are real. The impacts are tangible. But the scale of Nigeria’s crises demands more than goodwill.

If sustained, transparent, and expanded, these efforts could redefine how Nigerians relate to their national oil company, not as a distant extractor, but as a partner in survival and dignity.

If not, they risk becoming footnotes in a long history of missed opportunity.