By Emmanuel Nduka
Like his predecessor Muhammadu Buhari, President Bola Tinubu is likely to head the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the newly created Ministry of Gas Resources.
This comes as the list of his ministers and their portfolios released on Wednesday did not assign senior ministerial nominees to head both.
While Tinubu has not directly stated that he intends to hold the office of petroleum minister, the failure to appoint someone for the position indicates that he seeks to hold the office.
Heritage Times HT had reported that Heineken Lokpobiri, a former Nigerian Senator, was named the Minister of State for Petroleum, while Ekperikpe Epko, a former member of the House of Representatives, was named the Minister of State for Gas Resources.
Like Tinubu, Like Former President Buhari
The former President during his eight-year reign, had claimed that in a bid to sanitize the country’s oil sector, which is said to be bedevilled by corruption, massive fraud and crude oil theft, he needed to personalize the petroleum ministry.
But eight years after, although the industry recorded some gains notably with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), Buhari failed to turn around the nation’s moribund refinery, among other challenges.
The Nigerian petroleum sector also faced different challenges under his administration, including fuel scarcity disruptions that caused suffering for many Nigerians, a surge in pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft incidents in its oil-producing region, which worsened the nation’s revenue crisis.
