President Buhari Will Be Minister of Petroleum for 18 Months

President Muhammadu Buhari is set to head the Ministry of Petroleum for 18 months before appointing any one as a substantive minister for the important ministry. He said this while meeting with some members of his political party, APC, in Abuja recently.

One of those at the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told PUNCH on Sunday that Buhari said he would use the one and a half years of heading the sensitive ministry to reposition it.

According to him, “At the meeting we had recently, we discussed the issues of portfolios and other matters, the President said he was going to handle the Ministry of Petroleum himself for about 18 months.

“He said it was after this that he would appoint a substantive minister for the ministry. He said he would only personally handle the reorganisation of the much-important ministry.

“Besides, he said the ministry needed to be reformed and be rid of corruption. He promised to sanitise the ministry.”

It was, however, gathered that the President was thinking of appointing an experienced person as his special adviser on petroleum.

Buhari was once a minister in charge of the ministry and because of his experience, he was said to have vowed to make sure that he blocked all loopholes that allowed stealing money or petroleum products.