Pres. Buhari to head Ministry of petroleum for 18 months

months before appointing a substantive minister for
the ministry.

The President said this while meeting with some
members of his political party, the All Progressives
Congress, in Abuja recently.

One of those at the meeting, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, on Sunday said that the President said
he would use the 18 months of heading the
petroleum ministry to reposition it.

According to him,
“At the meeting we had recently, we discussed the
issues of portfolios and other matters,” the President
said he was going to handle the Ministry of
Petroleum himself for about 18 months.
“He said it was after this that he would appoint a
substantive minister for the ministry. He said he
would only personally handle the reorganisation of
the much-important ministry.

“Besides, he said the ministry needed to be reformed
and be rid of corruption. He promised to sanitise the
ministry.”

It was, however, gathered that the President was
thinking of appointing an experienced person as his
special adviser on petroleum.

The President was once a minister in charge of the
ministry so due to this experience, he was said to
have vowed to make sure that he blocked all the
loopholes that enabled stealing of money or
petroleum products.

He plans to split the NNPC in two, creating a
regulator and a vehicle for investments, according to
Femi Adesina, a presidential spokesman.

So far the president has fired the board and
management of the company and replaced its
Jonathan-appointed chief with Emmanuel Ibe
Kachikwu, who was executive vice-chariman of
Exxon Mobil Africa . He has also ordered a review
of oil-swap contracts and barred 113 vessels from
loading oil and gas, about 250,000 barrels of Nigerian
crude, about 10 percent of the country’s daily
output, are stolen daily, Buhari has said.
Speaking on the issue, the Peoples Democratic Party
said it would be too early to speculate on whether
the President would head the ministry or not.

Rather, the opposition party urged Nigerians to wait
till September when the President promised to name
his cabinet.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party,
Alhaji Ibrahim Jalo, told our correspondent that he
was only sure that the President was going to split
the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
Jalo said, “That Buhari is going to head the ministry
is speculative. But what we know, going by his body
language and actions so far, is that he is going to
split the NNPC .

“This is what we know. So, let’s wait and see what
he’s going to do before we make comments.”
However, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties
said the constitution vested powers on the President
to head any ministry or parastatal of his choice or
appoint a representative.

The National Publicity Secretary of the organisation,
Mr. Osita Okechukwu, said that Section 5 of the 1999
Constitution “vested executive powers on the
President.

He said
“He can decide to exercise such powers by himself or
delegate it to his deputy, or public officers of the
public service of the federation. That’s what the law
says.

“Whether he chooses to manage any ministry by
himself is immaterial. Whether he decides to be in
charge of ministries such as power, works, women
affairs or culture does not mean anything to the
Nigerian people.”

Punch

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