As
the nation awaits President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial list, the President
on Tuesday said he would head the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
Buhari
dropped the hint in one of the interviews he granted one of the foreign media
in his hotel shortly before departing New York.
The
President was in New York to participate in the 70th United Nations General
Assembly.
“I
will serve as the Minister of Petroleum Resources myself,” Buhari told his
interviewer.
The
nation’s petroleum sector has been said to be enmeshed in corruption with
millions of dollars said to be missing in the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation.
Shortly
after assuming office, Buhari sacked and replaced the management of the
company.
The
new management had started a general reorganisation of the firm.
Buhari
had on Monday said the trial of those who looted the NNPC would commence soon.
Meanwhile,
ministerial list that President Muhammadu Buhari will submit to the Senate on
Wednesday (today)will not contain all the members of his proposed cabinet, THE
PUNCH has learnt.
Buhari
was inaugurated on May 29, having defeated former President Goodluck Jonathan
in the presidential election held in March.
Investigation
by one of our correspondents on Tuesday revealed that what would be transmitted
to the Senate this week would not be a complete list of nominees.
A
top government official familiar with the arrangement confided in one of our
correspondents that Buhari would send the names of the nominees to the Senate
in batches.
“What
the Senate will be getting on Tuesday or Wednesday will not be a complete list.
The names will be sent in batches but quite a number will be on this first list
while others will be compiled and sent later,” the source said.
The
President may have decided to send the names in batches in order to meet the
September deadline he set for himself rather than waiting to compile the full
list and fail to beat the deadline.
Efforts
made by one of our correspondents to get an insight into the list of the first
batch of would-be ministers did not however yield any positive result on
Tuesday.
The
issue of the list has however been generating concerns among members of
Buhari’s delegation to the 70th United Nations General Assembly holding in New
York.
Many
of the politicians on the President’s delegation who felt they might be
considered for ministerial positions were getting in touch with Nigeria
intermittently on the telephone for latest information on the list while they
also kept making themselves visible for Buhari.
Some
of them who could not hide their anxiety were heard asking Nigerian journalists
if they had latest information on the list.
Prominent
chiefs of the All Progressives Congress on the President’s delegation include a
former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi; a former Ekiti State Governor,
Kayode Fayemi; and a former member of the House of Representatives, Abike
Dabiri-Erewa among others.
Meanwhile,
the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said on Tuesday that his leadership would
not employ vendetta in the screening of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s wise
men.
Saraki,
who stated this in his welcome address to his colleagues at a plenary after
their six-week recess, expressed confidence that Nigeria’s economy would
experience a turn-around with the appointment of ministers.
He
said, “As we await the list of ministerial nominees this week, I believe the
presence of ministers will create the space for greater policy engagement with
the executive arm of government.
“It
will also enable us to begin to respond in a more systematic manner to the
various economic and social challenges before us, especially through our
various committees that will also be constituted soon.
“On
this note, I want to urge you all my colleagues to ensure that what is
uppermost in our minds as we begin the constitutional task of screening of
ministerial nominees is the overall interest of our country, informed by the
enormity and the urgency of the challenges before us.
“Once
the list is submitted, let us ensure that we treat it with dispatch and
thoroughness. We must not be held down by unnecessary politicking.”
Source:punchng
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