Buhari Must Resist Temptation To Keep Petroleum Minister For Himself

Buhari

 

“Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions,”- Barack Obama

According to Reuters, President Muhammadu Buhari is thinking of holding on to the position of minister of Petroleum Resources in his, yet to be made public, ministerial list. The international news agency citing unnamed sources close to Buhari, said the reason for this is because Buhari does not trust anybody to be able to handle this all important ministry to his satisfaction. The source cited by Reuters also agreed with the supposed position of Buhari telling Reuters that the new president is finding it difficult getting somebody with his kind of integrity to manage the ministry in which the economy of Nigeria depends on.

If Buhari goes ahead to make himself minister of Petroleum Resources in his cabinet, he would not be doing anything new. It was former President Olusegun Obasanjo during his ‘messianic’ reign between 1999 and 2007 who started this idea of domiciling the petroleum ministry at the presidency with himself retaining the position for eight years. The jury is still out there on the performance of Obasanjo as both president and minister of petroleum for eight years, but there is no doubt that the job of the president is so enormous to add a ministerial position to it no matter how well intentioned.

It is interesting to note that the job of the president is so tasking for a younger president, not to talk of a 73 years old one. We all are witnesses how the ‘boyish’ look of President Goodluck Jonathan was lost in just five years, so much so that when he was leaving office a few days ago, he was all greys and aged by the weight of the office. Many readers may have also noticed how President Barack Obama has developed grey hairs due to the stress of the office. And there are many who believed that late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would have managed his health challenges better if he had not accepted the offer by Obasanjo to be the PDP presidential candidate in 2007 and subsequently weighed down by the responsibility of the office of the president which accelerated his death. We thank God for blessing our new president with excellent health even at 73, but the president should be better advised to learn to delegate responsibilities to reduce the stress of the office which may not be good to his health in the long run.

Aside the health implication of unnecessary heavy workload if Buhari is also minister of Petroleum Resources it could send the wrong signal that the president over all these years could not find somebody he had mentored to take the job of petroleum minister. It also means that Buhari was not ready to build institutions and was determined to perpetuate government of strongman, the albatross of Africa’s fragile democracies and economic development.

Recall that President Barack Obama in his first visit to Africa in 2009 after he was elected president of the United States, told the parliament of Ghana on July 11, 2009 in Accra that Africa should jettison government of strong men and build institutions. He said what African countries need are strong institutions and not strong men in order to make progress in there developmental quests.

If Obasanjo had appointed a minister of petroleum and put out a template on how to manage this key ministry, perhaps Yar’Adua and Jonathan would have built on it. But Obasanjo’s running of the ministry left much to be desired and after eight years of his control of the ministry the level of corruption associated with that ministry skyrocketed.

 Buhari had been petroleum minister in the past and if he believes that the past is better than the present let him use the template of that era and see how it can work with the minister he would appoint for the ministry.

Obasanjo’s domiciling of the petroleum ministry at the presidency accounted for the reasons why Transparency International (TI) in their corruption tracking in Nigeria observed that the presidency under Obasanjo was the most corrupt institution in the country. Far more corrupt than the states, local governments and National Assembly

It is therefore far better and more effective for Buhari to be giving directives from the Presidential Villa and ensuring that his orders are executed to the letter than get directly involved. By getting directly involved he may open himself for possible corruption and his integrity and reputation built over the years rubbished by the mafias at NNPC and the Petroleum ministry.

President Buhari therefore owe this generation and indeed future generations the development of probity and accountability in the oil and gas sector that would be enduring for years to come. He should appoint a petroleum minister who I believe will not fail knowing the kind of man that appointed him. But if such a minister fails to carry out the president’s vision for the sector, he can be fired and another hired in his place. This process of hiring and firing would continue till the country get it right on how to manage our oil resources for the benefit of all Nigerians.