PREMIUM TIMES
President Bola Tinubu, like his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari, appears prepared to head the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the newly created Ministry of Gas Resources.
On Wednesday, Mr Tinubu assigned portfolios to his ministers, over a week after they were screened by the Senate.
Ex-Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike was named Minister of the FCT while Wale Edun was named Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy.
Some of the other key portfolios include Ali Pate, a professor, as Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, and Lateef Fagbemi as Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. Ex-Jigawa Governor Mohamed Badaru was named Minister of Defence while Ex-Kebbi Governor Atiku Bagudu was named Minister of Budget and Economic Planning.
The president, however, did not assign any ministerial nominees to head the ministries of gas resources and petroleum resources. Although he has not directly stated that he intends to hold the office of petroleum minister, the failure to appoint someone for the position indicates that President Tinubu seeks to hold the office. His spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, did not answer or reply to calls and a text message sent to him on the topic.
Heineken Lokpobiri, a former Nigerian senator, was named the Minister of State for Petroleum while Ekperikpe Epko, a former member of the House of Representatives, was named the Minister of State for Gas Resources.
Mr Lokpobiri, as a junior minister of petroleum, is expected to resolve challenges affecting the petroleum sector, most especially the issues of crude theft, lack of oil investments and further development of the country’s oil assets to increase revenues from the petroleum sector.
While Mr Epko will be working to execute the policies passed by Mr Tinubu’s administration that are geared towards making the country utilise its gas potential for power generation and distribution, clean cooking, auto-use, and industrialization.
Since assuming office, Mr Tinubu has eliminated the nation’s costly fuel subsidies, a move he promised during his campaign.
On 29 May, during his inauguration as president, Tinubu announced the removal of subsidy on petrol which the government was spending almost a trillion naira on monthly.
The removal of the subsidy has caused hardship for many Nigerians with its attendant increase in the prices of goods and services.
The subsidy removal also led to increased government revenue with total distributable revenue increasing from about N786.161 billion in May to about N1.9 trillion in June as the government earned money that would in the past be used to subsidize petrol.
Buhari’s Footprint
During the electioneering period in 2015, Mr Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), criticised the then-incumbent government of Goodluck Jonathan for failing to solve the country’s unending petroleum sector crises.
At the time, Mr Buhari made a series of promises to Nigerians, which include fixing the nation’s moribund refineries, passing the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) within one year, ending fuel importation, addressing the corruption in the subsidy regime, among others.
To achieve these objectives, six months after he was elected president in 2015, Mr Buhari appointed himself as Minister of Petroleum Resources, a move that many Nigerians said would engender transparency and accountability in the nation’s opaque oil sector.
Addressing some select reporters in New York at the time, Mr Buhari said, “I will remain Minister of Petroleum. I will appoint a minister of State for Petroleum.”
