President Muhammadu Buhari has finally reacted to agitations by some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom state that their members have again been overlooked in the reconstituted board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The Presidency declared that the newly constituted board of the NNPC is not lopsided in favour of the North and challenged the Akwa Ibom aggrieved politicians to take their case to court.
The NNPC Act provides that the post of the corporation’s chairman be occupied by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, who in this case is President Muhammadu Buhari. Kachikwu is the minister of state in the ministry.
The APC in Akwa Ibom have repeatedly frown at the perceived nonchalance to their members with respect to appointments by the APC-led federal government.
An elder of the party Chief Sunny Udom had spoken in a radio interview that they were disappointed with the frustrating negligence on them by President Buhari saying, “we don’t want to be overlooked when it comes to juicy boards, only to be remembered for boards like National Copyright Commission or National Lottery Commission, what are we copyrighting?”
Efforts to reach the spokesman of APC in Akwa Ibom state Mr Ita Awak, proved abortive as he refused picking his calls as at press time.
But reacting to the criticisms trailing the arrangement, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu said that there was nothing wrong with the appointments.
According to him, the NNPC board has four persons appointed from the North and three from the South.
The NNPC board announced last Monday showed the Minister of State as chairman and Maikanti Kacalla Baru was named the new Group Managing Director (GMD) and a member of the board.
Other members are the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Mahmoud Dutse; Chief of Staff to the president, Mallam Abba Kyari; Dr. Thomas M. A. John, Dr Pius O. Akinyelure, Dr Tajuddeen Umar, Mallam Mohammed Lawal, and Mallam Yusuf Lawal.
Shehu said people should be more concerned about the quality the appointees could bring into their jobs rather than about primordial attachments.
When asked to react to the criticism of the lopsided nature of Buhari’s appointments, he said:
“What is the lopsidedness there? Four from the North, three from the South in a seven-man committee. So, what is the lopsidedness there?
“What is the lopsidedness? Because it should have been four South and three North? It could have been that way.
“I think people should be looking at what are they contributing in a country, what quality are they bringing to the board not this primordial kind of attachment.
“However, for a board that there are three (South), four (North), there’s balance.”
When reminded that it was not just the NNPC board that was perceived to be lopsided, the presidential spokesman said he did not want to speculate.
Shehu also said that Kachikwu was sworn in as a minister of the Federal Republic and a member of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
When asked why he was the one to hold the post which the law expressly gave to the substantive minister, Shehu queried: “And the minister of state is not a minister?”
He further stated: “Well, the president calls them ministers and he appointed them ministers. They took their oath of office as ministers and members of the Federal Executive Council as far as we can see.
“If anybody has a problem with that, let them go to court.
“Whatever it is. As far as the federal cabinet is concerned, Kachikwu doesn’t sit on the back row.
“You yourself have entered the Council chamber, you know how all of them are. They are all considered members of the FEC. They are all members of the FEC.
“As I said, anybody that has any issue can go to court and seek clarification.”
“Even the number of states in the country is not balanced, 19 and 17,” he said alluding to the fact that there are 19 states in the North and 17 in the South.
