Hence, any attempt to restructure the NNPC will affect the country to its core, impacting entrenched political power bases as well as average Nigerians who are growing ever more dependent on gasoline and electricity for living a modern life.
Pacifying the critics is indeed important, say analysts, not because their anti-Wal-Mart campaigns affect the shopping decisions of the company's core rural customers (they don't), but because these critics have the ear of liberal politicians who dominate urban legislatures.