Step down as Petroleum Minister, TUC tells Buhari

The Trade Union Congress, TUC, Tuesday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately step down as the Minister of Petroleum Resources in the face of the protracted scarcity of petrol all over the country.

According to the TUC, the office of minister of petroleum resources is too critical and demanding to be combined with the office of President and Commander In-Chief, adding that the perfect candidate for the job should be someone who has the necessary knowledge, experience and competence that would directly supervise the affairs of the ministry and report to the president.

The labour union also insisted that a new person should be appointed as the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to directly supervise the affairs of the corporation while the position of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources should remain as a junior minister in the ministry.

The President of TUC, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, made known the position of the union at the “Save Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Round Table Conference in Abuja.

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He said: “There is cogent need for appointment of a substantive Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources. The ideal candidate for this should be someone who has the necessary knowledge, experience and competence, and who would directly oversee the affairs of the ministry and report regularly to the President.

“That position is too critically important to the economy to be subsumed as one of the many offices or portfolios of the President and Commander-in-Chief. Of course the position of Minister of State for Petroleum and Mineral Resources should continue to exist as a junior minister in the ministry. A separate Group Managing Director (GMD) of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should also be appointed to directly supervise the affairs of the NNPC.”

Kaigama also said that all the appointees must be persons of bold, incorruptible and sound principles, adding that the so-called cabal came into being because of the pervasive corruption in the corporation.

He said: “It is high time we halt the ugly trend whereby members of the cabal are paid billions of naira for ‘fuel imports’ that never reach our shores.”

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