Buhari to take over from Diezani as Petroleum Minister

It is believed that President Muhammadu Buhari may most likely assume responsibility as the petroleum minister in the new cabinet.


According to a report by Reuters, close associates of the President revealed that he may take up the portfolio of the oil ministry.

Buhari has experience in managing the oil sector, having been head of the Petroleum Trust Fund under an ex-military ruler, the late Gen. Sani Abacha, in the 1990s and oil minister in the 1970s under Olusegun Obasanjo.

A long-standing associate of Buhari, who spoke on condition of anonymity said Nigeria’s oil sector was so dirty that nobody’s hands were clean enough to do the “surgical changes” needed.
Another political associate was also quoted by Reuters as saying, “He will do it. It would be stupid to give that position to anyone else.”

Similarly, an adviser in the All Progressives Congress party was quoted as saying: “It’s going to be a lean government; I doubt he’ll have 42 ministers like Jonathan but he must have at least 36 (for the number of states) as prescribed by the constitution, though it does not specify whether they have to be senior or junior.”