Ministry Of Petroleum Affairs To Be Manned By Buhari For 18 Months

Reports from The Punch says that President Muhammadu Buhari has said he is set to head the Ministry of Petroleum for 18 months before he appoints an independent minister for the ministry.

 

President Muhammadu Buhari

This was made public during a meeting in Abuja recently with some members of his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Speaking with news men, an anonymous source, said on Sunday that Buhari made known his plan to head the ministry for eighteen months would be used to reposition the very delicate ministry.

In his words, “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.”

Judging from President Buhari’s experience as a former minister in charge of the ministry, he is said to have vowed to make sure all loopholes are blocked and measures taken against those in charge of the ministry that either wants to steal money or petroleum products.

In the view of the opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), it is opined that it would be too early to speculate on whether the President would head the ministry or not, but urged Nigerians to wait till the President named his cabinet in September as promised by him.

Alhaji Ibrahim Jalo, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of PDP said he is sure Buhari would 

split the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. In his words, he stressed that, “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.”

Mr. Osita Okechukwu the National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties said that Section 5 of the 1999 Constitution has “vested executive powers on the President.” He added that, “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.”