Lawyer Tells Buhari Why He Can’t Make Himself Petroleum Minister

A Lagos lawyer, Nnaemeka Iheonu, has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing himself as the minister for petroleum, instead of giving the position to someone else.

President Buhari and his ministers.

According to him, the president’s action was against the constitution, Daily Independent reports.

He said: “The idea of Buhari being the Minister of Petroleum is somehow unconstitutional.  Section 138 of the constitution states that the President shall not hold any other Executive position while in office.

“Therefore, he is not supposed to be occupying any other executive position. He ought to appoint another person who should be accountable to him. As a minister of petroleum, how can he be accountable to himself?”

Iheonu explained that Buhari has a lot of responsibility as president and adding the job of minister to it will pose a lot of challenges to him.

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On Tuesday, September 29, in New York in the course of the Global Leaders’ Summit on Countering ISIL and Violent Extremism, Buhari announced that he would head the petroleum ministry.

A political associate of the president had said, “Nigeria’s oil sector is so dirty that nobody’s hands are clean enough to do the surgical changes needed”.

The lawyer stated that if Buhari’s idea of appointing himself a minister is to check corruption in the oil sector, he could equally do so by closely monitoring whoever he appoints to head the ministry.

He urged the president to take a good look at the provision of Section 138 of the constitution and make amends quickly by upgrading Ibe Kachikwu to be a substantive minister of petroleum.

However, Iheonu expressed confidence that Buhari will put a lot of things in the nation in the right direction, calling on Nigerians to support him in building a new nation.

After five months of keeping Nigerians in suspense, Buhari finally gave the ministers their portfolios on Wednesday, November 11, during their swearing in ceremony.

While listing the portfolios for the ministers, he named himself as the minister of petroleum while he named Ibe Kachikwu as the minister of state for petroleum.

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