Two public commentators, Baba Yusuf and Femi Odeere, have asked President Bola Tinubu to surrender his office as substantive minister of petroleum to a competent Nigerian.
Yusuf and Odeere argued that retaining the office of petroleum minister for himself since he composed his cabinet in August 2023 has not boosted the country’s daily oil production in any way.
They maintained that top oil-producing countries like the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and others don’t have their presidents as petroleum ministers.
Yusuf and Odeere spoke on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme that aired on Channels TV on Friday.
Yusuf, who is also a former Managing Director of NAHCO Free Trade Zone, said, “I believe that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should not distract himself with the petroleum portfolio.
“The presidents of the four largest oil-producing countries in the world have no business serving as ministers of petroleum.”
In terms of sophistication, the United Kingdom stands out. The United States of America doesn’t have its president overseeing such a portfolio.
“In terms of population size, China, Russia, India, Malaysia, and Indonesia don’t see the president holding the petroleum or any other portfolio.”
Yusuf asked Tinubu to “move away from the shadow and the cobweb of the oil and gas. The President should remove his hands from petroleum and give it to a focal person and hold such to account.”
He urged the president to reduce the size of his cabinet, saying that having two ministers manage a ministry hasn’t amounted to productivity and performance over the years.
On his part, Odeere, also an All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, agreed with Yusuf that Tinubu should break the culture of Nigerian presidents who appointed themselves as petroleum ministers.
“This speaks to the ineffectiveness of the system we are operating. Why do we have ministers for other portfolios, and all of a sudden, we say oil cannot be managed by somebody else except the president?
“To me, what that speaks to is that we still don’t understand how to operate our system, how to calibrate our system in such a way that whoever is somewhere, we’re assured that he (or she) is going to do the right thing. And if, at the end, he or she doesn’t do the right thing, the system will take him or her out.
“It is the tradition that Obasanjo started, and for some reason, subsequent presidents followed it. Maybe there is something that I don’t know that is making them appropriate the petroleum portfolio in their care.”
Tinubu appointed 48 ministers in August 2023, about three months after he was inaugurated as Nigeria’s president. He appointed Heineken Lokpobiri as Minister of State, Oil, and appointed Ekperipe Ekpo as Minister of State, Gas, but retained the senior petroleum minister role just like his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari.
One of Tinubu’s 48 ministers, Betta Edu, was suspended in January 2024, while another, Simon Lalong, resigned and joined the Senate.
With Nigeria’s wobbling economy, skyrocketing inflation, and worsening security, Tinubu, the former Lagos governor, has faced intense criticism over his cabinets’ performance in the last 15 months since their appointment.
The President succumbed to the calls for him to shake up his cabinet on Wednesday, with the disengagement of five ministers, the reassignment of 10 others, and seven fresh appointments.
