Pres. Buhari To Chair Ministry Of Petroleum For The Next 18 Months

 

 

 

 

President Muhammadu Buhari has announced that he would be chairing the Ministry of Petroleum for the next 18 months.

And after the period stated a substantive minister will be appointed to headline for the ministry.

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

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.

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.”