Emmanuel Ibeh Kachikwu,the Minister of state for Petroleum Resources said his confidential memo to President Muhammadu Buhari is a normal procedural correspondence by the Minister to the President relating to developments in parastatals under his supervision.
Kachikwu described in a statement issued on Tuesday as distressing that a confidential communication to the President on the performance of one of its parastatals can be made public,while insisting that the focus of the memo was on deepining transparency in the oil and Gas sector.
Kachikwu in the referred memo dated 30th August 2017 with the memo number HMS/MPR/001/Vol.I/100 addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari accused Maikanti Baru the Group Managing Director of NNPC of infringing against the extant laws of the corporation.
The Minister averred that he found it pertinent to call the attention of the President to the misgivings of the NNPC GMD because they are capable of hindering progress in the country’s petroleum sector or even reverse strides.
Recall,the Corporation is currently working according to the templates of the “7 Bigwins” being championed by Ibeh Kachikwu which has already set Nigeria’s Petroleum sector on a path to progress,but industry watchers said lack of cohesion between the Minister of state and the GMD of NNPC could pose a major set back to Nigeria’s major revenue earner-the Petroleum sector.
In the dated letter to the President,’Kachikwu states that,”Parastatals in the ministry and all CEOS of these parastatals must be aligned with the policy drive of the ministry to allow the sector register the growth that has eluded it for many years”
“To do otherwise or to exempt any of the parastatals would be to em place a stunted growth for the industry”
HARRISON EDEH,ABUJA
