'How a militant threatened me on the phone,' Minister recounts

dimeji akinloye

May 11, 2016 4:52 PM

The minister said he got millions of phone calls from Nigerians last week after his number was published on SaharaReporters.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr.

While lamenting the effect of attacks on oil installations at the federal government’s town hall meeting which held in Kaduna state, the minister said he got millions of phone calls from Nigerians last week after his number was published on SaharaReporters.

“One of the first phone calls I took not knowing who was calling me was from a militant somewhere and when I picked up the phone, he said ‘Are you the minister of petroleum’, I said yes.

“He said I dey go blow pipeline tomorrow, and I said why would you do that my brother if you love Nigerians? He said ‘are you sure you are the minister’, I said yes.

“Then he said for being so humble, I will drop the plan. That’s the kind of environment under which we operate,” Kachikwu said.

He urged Nigerians not to be discouraged by the current challenges facing the country, saying the present administration has the capability of turning the situation around for the better.

“The reality of our situation is that wherever I turn when I was appointed, I had problems. If I turn to the refineries when I joined in October, they were not working. If I turned to the pipelines, they were non-existent,” he said.

“But I wasn’t discouraged, because if I had problems, what will I say of a man who at his age took over the mantle of this country? His Excellency, the president so that gave me a lot of encouragement.”

READ: Kachikwu says FG will privatise refineries

Other ministers at the meeting were Lai Mohammed,(information and culture), Kayode Fayemi (solid minerals), Abdulrahman Dambazau (interior), Adebayo Shittu (communications), and Zainab Ahmed (state for budget and national planning).

Also in attendance was the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai.

dimeji akinloye