Lagos (AFP) – Nigeria’s President Muhammadu
Buhari is to take personal charge of the country’s
crucial oil portfolio, his spokesman said on
Tuesday, as a deadline loomed for him to finally
nominate his cabinet.
Reports from New York, where Buhari has been
attending the UN General Assembly, quoted the
president as saying he would be minister of
petroleum resources, with a junior minister taking
charge of day-to-day affairs in the sector.
“Confirmed. He said so,” his spokesman Femi
Adesina told AFP in a text message, without
giving further details.
Buhari, 72, took office on May 29 after a landmark
election victory against Goodluck Jonathan — the
first time an opposition candidate has unseated
an incumbent in the country’s history.
The former military ruler has vowed that
corruption and the corrupt will have no place in
his government and vetting of potential
candidates has been seen as delaying his
appointment of a senior ministerial team.
Buhari has made tackling the rot in the oil sector
a priority, as he seeks to cut endemic graft and
put the country’s crippled, crude-dependent
finances on a firmer footing.
Nigeria — Africa’s number one crude producer
and biggest economy — has been hit badly by a
slump in global crude prices since last year,
squeezing government revenue.
Oil accounts for some 90 percent of Nigeria’s
foreign exchange earnings.
The president has vowed to recover “mind-
boggling” sums of stolen oil cash, starting with a
drastic overhaul of state-run oil firm the Nigerian
National Petroleum Company (NNPC).
The NNPC has become a byword for corruption
and last year was accused of failing to remit $20
billion in revenue to the central bank.
Buhari helped establish the NNPC in 1977 as oil
minister under military ruler General Olusegun
Obasanjo.
He was later in charge of the Petroleum Trust
Fund during the time of General Sani Abacha in
the 1990s.
Buhari’s caution in appointing ministers has seen
him nicknamed “Baba Go Slow” in Nigeria, but he
has promised to name his cabinet by Wednesday.
Appointments have to be approved by parliament,
which resumed sitting on Tuesday.
A committee advising Buhari on policy before he
took office has recommended he streamlines the
number of ministries and ministers.
Meanwhile, according to the Senior Special
Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity to the
President, Garba Shehu, President Buhari on
Wednesday, departed the United States for Abuja
after a successful outing at the 70th session of
the UN General Assembly in New York.
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