Petroleum Ministry: Buhari Is Yet to Say Anything About NNPC – Junaid Mohammed

  • Says ministers appear to be competent.
  • They should have been appointed in positions of their strength according to their specialty.

A Second Republic member of the House of Representatives from Kano State, Junaid Mohammed, has kicked against President Muhammadu Buhari appointing himself as Petroleum Resources Minister.

In an interview with Vanguard, the former lawmaker pointed that the president has been silent about his position as well.

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“I don’t support the idea of him making himself the minister of petroleum and I don’t know from what I read whether he has put his name down as the minister of petroleum or not since he has largely remained quiet about his own position.

“He has not said whether he is superintending over the NNPC or the petroleum ministry. For that reason, I don’t know if he wants to remain and reap from what this Kachikwu man (minister of state (Petroleum) in the first term), who was not a member of the party was created for him or whether he wants to take time and study the situation in the industry and, thereafter, decide whether to return or hand it over to somebody who is competent to handle the ministry. But I never supported him then and I still don’t support him now,” he said.

While noting that the ministers appointed appeared to be competent, Mohammed stated that what is left for them is to prove their worth.

“They appear as people with competence and integrity. But we can only see how far they can go when they begin to render service to the country, which is in dire need of rejuvenation given the fact that we have just exited a recession.

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“Nigerians expect nothing but the best from these people and their integrity really matters since it will reflect in their performance and contribution to the Buhari era,” he added.

The lawmaker who has been a critic of the ruling government, Mohammed noted that the performance of the ministers also affects everyone and Nigerian need to pray that they don’t fail.

“I don’t think Nigerians will be happy if they mess up the country and leave it worse than they met it. The President took over the country when it was in recession and he worked very hard to get us out of recession. Nigerians will be worried and very unhappy if the government and the ministers don’t work assiduously to grow the economy and secure a better future for Nigerians.

“I still believe it is important to have people in the right places, people of competence, people of integrity, the kind of people who will certainly manage the portfolios given to them in good conscience; people who will make sure that this country avoids another recession.”

Mohammed who described Buhari’s slogan ‘Next Level’ slogan as sheer nonsense as it doesn’t explain anything said the minimum expectation he has from the ministers in relation to their portfolios is that they should know what they are talking about.

“If a minister cannot give you the definition of economics as minister of finance, national planning, among others, which is driven by economic knowledge and economic science, if you serve in that ministry without that knowledge, then you are in serious trouble.

“If you are a minister of agriculture and you do not know anything about agriculture and you are not committed to agriculture as one of the means of diversifying the economy, then you are in serious trouble. This is why Buhari should have deployed the ministers in a way to ensure that square pegs are put in square holes.

“The proper deployment of the ministers, according to the areas of their competence, would have gone a long way to strengthen the system and move the country forward, and Buhari should not have lost sight of that.”

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