Ministerial List: Buhari to become Petroleum Minister!

Buhari dropped an hint on what his ministerial cabinet may look like in one of the interviews he granted one of the foreign media in his hotel shortly before departing New York.

“I will serve as the Minister of Petroleum Resources myself,” Buhari told his interviewer.

The President was in New York to participate in the 70th United Nations General Assembly.

The nation’s petroleum sector has been said to be enmeshed in corruption with millions of dollars said to be missing in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Shortly after assuming office, Buhari sacked and replaced the management of the company.

The new management had started a general reorganisation of the firm.

Buhari had on Monday said the trial of those who looted the NNPC would commence soon.

Meanwhile, ministerial list that President Muhammadu Buhari will submit to the Senate on Wednesday (today)will not contain all the members of his proposed cabinet, from reports.

“What the Senate will be getting on Tuesday or Wednesday will not be a complete list. The names will be sent in batches but quite a number will be on this first list while others will be compiled and sent later,”  a government source confirmed.

The President may have decided to send the names in batches in order to meet the September deadline he set for himself rather than waiting to compile the full list and fail to beat the deadline.

The issue of the list has however been generating concerns among members of Buhari’s delegation to the 70th United Nations General Assembly holding in New York.

Many of the politicians on the President’s delegation who felt they might be considered for ministerial positions were getting in touch with Nigeria intermittently on the telephone for latest information on the list while they also kept making themselves visible for Buhari.

Some of them who could not hide their anxiety were heard asking Nigerian journalists if they had latest information on the list.

Prominent chiefs of the All Progressives Congress on the President’s delegation include a former Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi; a former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi; and a former member of the House of Representatives, Abike Dabiri-Erewa among others.

The Punch