Buhari
Several experts have condemn President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to combine the role of a petroleum minister with being the President of the country, saying the decision is going to have adverse effects on the economy and governance of the country.
A professor of African Studies at the University of Michigan, the United States, who specialises in oil and natural resource politics, Omolade Adunbi, said that being petroleum minister would take away the President’s gaze from other areas of the economy and governance.
“He’s going to be dividing his time between looking at the petroleum sector and governing the nation, which I think is not the appropriate thing to do when the economy is in deep crisis," International Business Times quoted him as saying.
“Buhari is not a petroleum engineer. He is not a technocrat. He is not a specialist on oil. So people can still successfully [steal] without him knowing. That’s why it’s important for him to appoint someone who knows the economics of oil as well as the politics to manage the industry and move it from where it is right now to where it can be an agent for growth.”
A research fellow in energy economics at the University of Aberdeen, and former energy consultant to the Federal Government, Sola Kasim, suggested that the President should leave the job for someone else who is an expert in the sector, while he focuses on administration.
“To be brutally honest, I do not recollect Buhari being an effective petroleum minister. A very honest one, though. I venture to postulate that Buhari is the cleanest, least corruptible, petroleum minister Nigeria ever had,” he said.
Also, a director of governance programmes at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a policy think tank in New York, Alexandra Gillies, said, “Being the President, he doesn’t have the time. It worries me from the scale of things that need to be done.
“If you don’t delegate, you’re not going to be able to make progress on all of those urgent fronts. From a governance standpoint, it’s not ideal. You need that [petroleum] minister to balance it out.”
A professor of African Studies at the University of Michigan, the United States, who specialises in oil and natural resource politics, Omolade Adunbi, said that being petroleum minister would take away the President’s gaze from other areas of the economy and governance.
“He’s going to be dividing his time between looking at the petroleum sector and governing the nation, which I think is not the appropriate thing to do when the economy is in deep crisis," International Business Times quoted him as saying.
“Buhari is not a petroleum engineer. He is not a technocrat. He is not a specialist on oil. So people can still successfully [steal] without him knowing. That’s why it’s important for him to appoint someone who knows the economics of oil as well as the politics to manage the industry and move it from where it is right now to where it can be an agent for growth.”
A research fellow in energy economics at the University of Aberdeen, and former energy consultant to the Federal Government, Sola Kasim, suggested that the President should leave the job for someone else who is an expert in the sector, while he focuses on administration.
“To be brutally honest, I do not recollect Buhari being an effective petroleum minister. A very honest one, though. I venture to postulate that Buhari is the cleanest, least corruptible, petroleum minister Nigeria ever had,” he said.
Also, a director of governance programmes at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a policy think tank in New York, Alexandra Gillies, said, “Being the President, he doesn’t have the time. It worries me from the scale of things that need to be done.
“If you don’t delegate, you’re not going to be able to make progress on all of those urgent fronts. From a governance standpoint, it’s not ideal. You need that [petroleum] minister to balance it out.”
Nigerian Bulletin
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