President Shouldn’t Be Petroleum Minister – Sanusi Tells Tinubu

Former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has declared that the President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu should not double as the Minister of Petroleum.

Sanusi made the submission on Thursday while speaking at The Bank Directors Summit held at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja.

According to him, the advice is necessary in order to have someone who can be held accountable because if anything goes wrong in the petroleum sector, people would not want to speak against the President.

The former Emir of Kano also called for the audit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), noting that this call was what cost him his job as the CBN Governor.

“Let me advise that the idea of the president being petroleum minister. The last president was minister of petroleum for eight years.

“When I was governor of CBN, we had a petroleum minister. So when we talk about NNPC, I could attack Diezani, now nobody can talk about petroleum because in 8 years if you talk, you are attacking the president,” he said.

Naija News reports President Tinubu upon assumption of office, split the Ministry of Petroleum Resources with the appointment of Ekperipe Ekpo as Minister of State, Gas Resources; and Heineken Lokpobiri as Minister of State, Petroleum Resources but retained the position of substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources for himself.

This follows the style of his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari who also doubled as the Minister of Petroleum during his tenure.

But Sanusi stated during his talk that the President shouldn’t be the Minister of Petroleum as well.

Speaking further during the event, the former CBN Governor also stressed the need to amend the CBN Act to keep the apex bank free of political influences.