A seeming displeasure among key stakeholders in the oil and gas industry appears to be gaining momentum over the continues stay in office of Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
The leadership of all the industry unions in the sector are gearing up to ensure that the embattled Minister resigns or is removed from office. This comes on the backdrop of the satisfactory explanation by the Presidency which cleared the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation of wrong doing as alleged by the Minister.
According to the leaders of various unions in the sector, they posit that the detailed clarification provided by the Presidency which undoubtedly cleared the air and indicted Kachikwu as a noise maker, the Minister has lost all moral and integrity to lead or supervise the oil and gas industry as Minister of State for Petroleum Resources. It was learnt that some die-hard members of the group are even threatening to embarrass the Minister with an excruciating fuel scarcity in the days ahead to force him to throw in the towel.
Sources close to the leadership of the tanker drivers say that the group is moving for total shutdown to press home their demand for Kachikwu’s resignation ahead of a planned meeting of downstream stakeholders early next week.
In a paper dispatched to the Presidency recently after its widely publicized Press Release on the issue, the leadership of NARTO, the umbrella association of all the owners of fuel tankers in the country, chided Kachikwu for what it termed immature attitude.
‘’We would like to reiterate that the comment made by the Hon. Minister were an act of immaturity and an indirect affront on the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari who is the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources. It is absolutely ridiculous for him to say that he could not have access to the President even though he is a Cabinet Minister serving in the same Ministry where the President is the substantive Minister,’’ NARTO Stated in the document signed by Alhaji (Dr.) Kassim Ibrahim Bataiya its National President.
NARTO urged Kachikwu to resign immediately since his loyalty to his boss and the country is now in serious doubt.
The oil industry stakeholders consists of the leadership of the National Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, the Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association, PENGASSAN, the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMA as well as the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN and the Major Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN.
