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President Bola Tinubu, like his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari, seems ready to go the Ministry of Petroleum Assets and the newly created Ministry of Gasoline Assets.
On Wednesday, Mr Tinubu assigned portfolios to his ministers, over every week after they had been screened by the Senate.
Ex-Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike was named Minister of the FCT whereas Wale Edun was named Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Financial system.
Among the different key portfolios embody Ali Pate, a professor, as Coordinating Minister of Well being and Social Welfare, and Lateef Fagbemi as Legal professional Normal of the Federation and Minister of Justice. Ex-Jigawa Governor Mohamed Badaru was named Minister of Defence whereas Ex-Kebbi Governor Atiku Bagudu was named Minister of Price range and Financial Planning.
The president, nevertheless, didn’t assign any ministerial nominees to go the ministries of fuel sources and petroleum sources. Though he has circuitously acknowledged that he intends to carry the workplace of petroleum minister, the failure to nominate somebody for the place signifies that President Tinubu seeks to carry the workplace. His spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, didn’t reply or reply to calls and a textual content message despatched to him on the subject.
Heineken Lokpobiri, a former Nigerian senator, was named the Minister of State for Petroleum whereas Ekperikpe Epko, a former member of the Home of Representatives, was named the Minister of State for Gasoline Assets.
Mr Lokpobiri, as a junior minister of petroleum, is anticipated to resolve challenges affecting the petroleum sector, most particularly the problems of crude theft, lack of oil investments and additional growth of the nation’s oil belongings to extend revenues from the petroleum sector.
Whereas Mr Epko might be working to execute the insurance policies handed by Mr Tinubu’s administration which might be geared in direction of making the nation utilise its fuel potential for energy era and distribution, clear cooking, auto-use, and industrialization.
Since assuming workplace, Mr Tinubu has eradicated the nation’s expensive gasoline subsidies, a transfer he promised throughout his marketing campaign.
On 29 Could, throughout his inauguration as president, Tinubu introduced the removing of subsidy on petrol which the federal government was spending nearly a trillion naira on month-to-month.
The removing of the subsidy has precipitated hardship for a lot of Nigerians with its attendant enhance within the costs of products and companies.
The subsidy removing additionally led to elevated authorities income with complete distributable income growing from about N786.161 billion in Could to about N1.9 trillion in June as the federal government earned cash that may prior to now be used to subsidize petrol.
Buhari’s Footprint
Through the electioneering interval in 2015, Mr Buhari and his social gathering, the All Progressives Congress (APC), criticised the then-incumbent authorities of Goodluck Jonathan for failing to resolve the nation’s never-ending petroleum sector crises.
On the time, Mr Buhari made a collection of guarantees to Nigerians, which embody fixing the nation’s moribund refineries, passing the Petroleum Trade Invoice (PIB) inside one yr, ending gasoline importation, addressing the corruption within the subsidy regime, amongst others.
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To attain these aims, six months after he was elected president in 2015, Mr Buhari appointed himself as Minister of Petroleum Assets, a transfer that many Nigerians stated would engender transparency and accountability within the nation’s opaque oil sector.
Addressing some choose reporters in New York on the time, Mr Buhari stated, “I’ll stay Minister of Petroleum. I’ll appoint a minister of State for Petroleum.”
Based on him, the step was taken as a part of efforts to sanitise the nation’s oil sector, which is claimed to be bedevilled by corruption, large fraud and crude oil theft.
Eight years after, though the trade recorded some beneficial properties notably with the passage of the Petroleum Trade Act, Mr Buhari failed to show across the nation’s moribund refinery, amongst different challenges.
The Nigerian petroleum sector additionally confronted completely different challenges underneath his administration, together with gasoline shortage disruptions that precipitated struggling for a lot of Nigerians, a surge in pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft incidents in its oil-producing area, which worsened the nation’s income disaster.
Historic Precedent
If Mr Tinubu continues on this trajectory, this might be the third time since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999 {that a} sitting president might be heading the nation’s petroleum ministry.
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo was elected in 1999, he appointed himself the Minister of Petroleum Assets.
For six of his eight years in workplace, between 1999 and 2005, Mr Obasanjo was the Petroleum Minister and Minister of State for Petroleum. Nevertheless, in 2003, the final yr of his first tenure, Mr Obasanjo appointed Edmund Daukoru as Presidential Adviser on Petroleum and Vitality. Later in July 2005, he named Mr Daukoru Minister of State for Vitality, Petroleum Assets.
Through the Umaru Yar’Adua administration, Riliwanu Lukman was appointed minister of petroleum, a place he held till March 2010.
After the passing of Mr Yar’Adua, the then-former Vice President Goodluck Jonathan grew to become performing president and appointed Diezani Alison-Madueke because the minister of petroleum in February 2010, a place she held until 29 Could 2015, when Mr Jonathan left workplace. Mrs Alison-Madueke’s tenure was riddled with controversies and allegations of corruption.
Mrs Alison-Madueke is thus Nigeria’s final minister of petroleum that’s not the sitting president.
In 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari adopted within the footsteps of Mr Obasanjo when he got here to energy and appointed himself as Minister of Petroleum Assets. Mr Buhari, throughout his eight-year tenure (2015-2023) appointed two completely different state petroleum ministers, particularly Ibe Kachikwu and Timipre Sylva.
In March 2023, Mr Sylva resigned to contest the governorship election in Bayelsa State.
Authorized Issues
Public opinion seems divided on the legality of the president appointing himself head of a ministry, division or company of presidency.
Talking to PREMIUM TIMES on Friday, an Abuja-based lawyer, Yomi Ogunsanya, argued that “It’s extremely improper for a president to go the ministry of petroleum,” and leaders behave as if they’re above the regulation.
“Though he (Tinubu) has not introduced that he might be heading that ministry, it’s assumed that he’s going to go it due to what occurred in the course of the previous administration of Buhari. At the moment, Buhari stated he might be heading the Ministry of Petroleum.
“We don’t want that now, that the president might be heading it and we don’t know why they can’t discover anyone out of the entire nominees to go the ministry. It’s extremely improper,” Mr Ogunsanya stated.
He stated the president has an enormous duty to shoulder and shouldn’t be distracted by further challenges within the oil ministry.
“They need to strictly adhere to the regulation and appoint a minister to go the ministry, which is the correct factor to do. In order that there might be anyone to carry accountable. You noticed what occurred prior to now the place the ministry shouldn’t be accountable for something and for no matter they’ve been doing.
“So, the correct factor to do is to abide by the regulation by appointing a minister for the ministry.
However Arome Okwori, a Jos-based lawyer, argued that the structure supplies the essential framework for the operation of presidency equipment and supplies for the orders of the federal government.
“By the (dictates) of the 1999 structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is just the workplace of the Legal professional Normal and Ministry of Justice that’s particularly supplied for particular and particular features underneath the structure,” Mr Okwori advised PREMIUM TIMES.
“The structure didn’t exclude the president in that sense, it provides the president some form of discretion by way of who he’ll appoint and for which workplace.
“So, you’ll even observe that among the workplaces that had been created underneath the Buhari administration have now been abolished underneath the Tinubu administration which implies that, it’s throughout the discretion of the president to now determine which workplace to create because the ministry for his authorities to perform properly,” he added.
Mr Okwori argued that in strict authorized parlance, the president can’t be held to account for violation of the structure for appointing himself a minister.
“He might determine to not even appoint the minister of petroleum. If he says, look, I don’t need any workplace just like the minister of petroleum to exist, you’ll be able to’t maintain him to account on that as a result of the structure doesn’t say ‘appoint an workplace for petroleum ministry’.
“Are there legal guidelines which will consult with the petroleum minister? Certain, there could also be. However should you take a look at the structure strictly, if the president for instance needs to imagine the workplace of the Legal professional Normal of the Federation and says look I can’t appoint an Legal professional Normal and Minister for Justice. The query will now be, can he be the president and in addition be the minister for justice to the extent that the structure has made particular provisions for the particular person to be appointed?
“I need to say, primarily based on my opinion, the president can’t be held to account for holding the workplace of the petroleum minister and similtaneously the president,” he added.
Nevertheless, the authorized practitioner stated it seems ‘irregular’ if the president acts as minister.
“Is the president now saying that he doesn’t imagine or belief another Nigerian other than himself? Is there one thing in that workplace that different Nigerians have no idea, that solely the president is aware of and has the ability and obligations to supervise?
“To me, the entire concept of the president changing into a minister is sort of suspicious and as you’ll be able to see that the federal government shouldn’t be functioning properly. That’s my concern,” he stated.
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