Don’t Name Yourself Petroleum Minister, CNPP Tells Tinubu

Posted by Ignatius Okpara Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News Across Nigeria Wednesday, August 9th, 2023

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Conference Of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to resist the temptation to name himself the Minister of Petroleum Resources as he prepares to assign portfolios to Ministers-designate.

The umbrella association of all registered political parties and political associations in the country, gave the advice on Tuesday, while also hailing the Senate “for not approving the hasty decision by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government to deploy troops to Niger Republic to oust the military junta in the West African country.”

In a statement signed by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, James Ezema, and made available to African Examiner in Enugu, the CNPP added that “the oil industry, which is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy is challenged on every side and supervised by very corrupt leadership.”

The CNPP noted that “since the job of a President of Nigeria is enormous, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should assign the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, or whosoever he chooses for the Ministry overseeing the petroleum industry, to a substantive minister who he will hold accountable for the activities of the Ministry.

“The oil industry in Nigeria is one of the most corrupt sectors, where we often heard of zero remittances by the then Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

“We call on the President to ensure a thorough forensic probe of the old NNPC to recover the alleged unremitted revenues by the defunct corporation and to sanitize the oil industry and begin on a clean slate”, the CNPP stated.

On the war drums against the coupists in Niger, the CNPP said that “the Senate was on point by stopping the planned deployment of Nigerian troops to Niger.

“The consequences of Nigeria’s involvement in the ill-throughout plans by ECOWAS to deploy troops in Niger against the Junta will be regrettable as most parts of northern Nigeria will be destroyed as a result of the aftermath of the war.

“Nigeria should learn a lesson from the Ukrainian and Russian war. While Ukraine is receiving the negative impacts of the war, it has been impossible for Russia to overrun Ukraine too.

“Nigeria has enough security challenges within her territory and should not be dragged into needless war against the military junta in Niger which is massively supported by the majority of the civilian population in the country”, the statement noted.