You're not qualified to act as Petroleum Minister, Falana tells Tinubu

Following the precedents laid by former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu has refused to appoint a minister of petroleum resources, leaving room for the assumptions that he has assumed the role.

However, Falana said the President must stop parading himself as the petroleum minister because he was not screened by the National Assembly before assuming the role.

He made this known while speaking at the public presentation of a book titled, 'Dis Life No Balance; An Anthropology of Nigerian Diaspora Voices,' in Abuja on Thursday, December 14, 2023.

The book was co-authored by the trio of Professors Farooq Kperogi, Moses Ochonu, and Dr. Osmund Agbo.

The human activist argued that Tinubu's role as a minister of petroleum contravened section 147 of the Constitution.

Corroborating the position of the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the 14th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, on Tinubu’s role as a minister of the petroleum resources, the SAN noted that the arrangement makes it difficult for the nation to hold the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) accountable.

“Last week, a former governor of the central bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, advised President Bola Tinubu against occupying the office of the Minister of Petroleum Resources saying such an arrangement makes it difficult for the country to hold the NNPC limited accountable.

“We paid N11trn in 8 years under President Muhammadu Buhari to import oil or fuel. Why has there been no investigation? With respect, this is my answer, President Bola Tinubu is not the Minister of Petroleum Resources as his nomination was never sent to the senate for screening as mandatorily required by section 147 of the Constitution.

“My advice is that the President should not parade himself as the minister of petroleum resources like President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Muhammadu Buhari,” Falana said.