KEY POINTS
- Tinubu should relinquish his position as petroleum minister and should replace him with an efficient one.
- Some of the most alarming problems of Nigeria in the oil sector are fuel shortages and theft of oil.
- This is never a personal issue but a way to trying and rearrange the cabinet to enhance good governance and deal with the various national challenges.
Compounding the fuel crisis as well as other concerns affecting Nigeria’s oil industry, it has been called for President Bola Tinubu to relinquish his position as the minister of petroleum so that he could bring in a capable technocrat who could help in the management of the sector.
The recent unrest in the oil and gasoline markets have made Nigerian citizens to become restless, as they see their fuel prices rise and the filling station queues extend.
These days, citizens also pay over 1,000 naira for fuel and are back to line after two days showing the current status is very unsustainable.
Tinubu being called to shed off Petroleum portfolio has basis in the fact that Nigeria’s President should not hive off on himself concrete ministerial responsibilities.
According to The Punch, this decision that was followed by the former president Olusegun Obasanjo and continued by Muhammadu Buhari has now brought the petroleum sector into this state that deserves non-stop full attention from the president and his government.
A crisis too big for one person to address
The upstream industry is experiencing problems such as oil theft, the midstream industry is plagued with outdated pipelines while the downstream sector is plagued with fuel shortage.
Other new projects have also been delayed and experienced complications in Nigeria such as the much-anticipated Dangote Refinery that has become part of the energy crisis.
As much as the decision to remove the fuel subsidy had some merit the public has not yet felt the positive results hence the confusion and dissatisfaction.
The incumbent President Tinubu who also leads the ECOWAS is under tremendous pressure on various fronts. Things like insecurity, hunger, and bad infrastructural structures continue to plague Nigeria and there is nothing more crucial for him than to fix the country’s economy.
In order to resolve these urgent problems, Tinubu will have to put the ministry of petroleum in the hands of a capable leader who will devote all his efforts to the work on the revival of the sphere.
