Very few business organisations are as lucky as NNPCL, Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, founded over 50 years ago. Since its founding, the corporation has consistently failed to perform its basic functions and meet its organisational objectives, and rather than being liquidated or put up for sale for these failures, NNPC routinely undergoes some form of moulting, shedding its skin and assuming a new look. The façade might look brilliant, but it’s only skin-deep. NNPC was founded about the same time, or earlier than successful global state-owned oil companies like Saudi Aramco, owned by the Saudi government; Petronas (Malaysian government); Equinor ASA (formerly Statoil, owned by Norway); and Petrobras, owned by Brazil. While these other ones have grown into transnational giants with oil fields and refineries across the globe, NNPC has become a cesspool of corruption, incompetence, and decadence. But the corporation is very adept at playing games and worming itself into the hearts of politicians, just to stay alive. This month, the government changed its status as a monopolist, responsible for sole importation of petroleum products, to a monopsonist, the sole buyer of Dangote Refinery’s gasoline. NNPC is the ultimate amoeba of corporate Nigeria, and the implications are worrisome.