Some stakeholders have criticised President Muhammadu Buhari over his seven-year stewardship as Minister of Petroleum Resources, scoring his administration with poor grades, scathing criticisms, and outright condemnation.
Even though the President got praised for his Government’s role in the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), which stagnated in the National Assembly for years, the alleged incompetence exhibited by his administration in the fight against crude theft, according to many, is mind-boggling.
Other areas where key stakeholders alleged that the petroleum minister has performed woefully include the moribund state of the nation’s refineries, failure to effectively curb pipeline vandalism, increasing lack of transparency, rising subsidy regime, steady import of dirty fuel into the country, and unabating fuel scarcity, among others.
According to the Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, the ministry has been without “effective supervision” under Buhari, while an energy expert, and Managing Partner at Fleissen & Company, Dr. Sunday Kenshio said that the country failed to hit the projected two million barrels of crude per day under the minister.
Speaking in separate interviews, the stakeholders noted that the country’s crude oil production has in the last seven years remained low amidst rising theft and vandalism leading to the shut-in of oil wells and loss of investment to other African countries.
They, however, applauded the passage of the PIA, and stressed that the fiscal and regulatory framework may be Buhari’s only achievement as the minister of petroleum resources.
As the country has slipped from the first position to the third largest oil producer in Africa in the last seven years, they insist that never should a sitting president be assigned that portfolio again.
While Rafsanjani was stressing that Buhari must accept responsibility for the sector’s woes, the immediate-past Director-General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr. Muda Yusuf, is equally of the view that encumbering the president with leading the ministry is absurd.
He added that while the minister should be accountable to the president, report to the Federal Executive Council, and the National Assembly, saying that is not achievable when the president is in office as petroleum minister.
He also alleged that the sector was becoming monopolistic with the NNPC handling most businesses and excluding the private sector, especially in the downstream sector, a development that he said is breeding inefficiencies, corruption, lack of a level-playing field, and absence of competition.
