Buhari should not act as petroleum minister - Issa Aremu
The national deputy president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to rescind his decision to make himself the petroleum minister.
Aremu said President Buhari would send a wrong signal that the nation’s economy will still largely depend on the oil and gas sector if he went ahead to become petroleum minister.
The NLC boss urged the federal government to revive the rail transportation system, noting that jobs can be created through rail transportation more than jobs created from the oil and gas industry.
He said this while speaking with journalists in Ilorin, on the sideline of the 7th day fidau prayer for the repose of the soul of his late mother, Alhaja Afusatu Aremu.
He said, “President Buhari wants to be another minister of petroleum resources. He does not need that. He should rather be minister of railway or textile.
“What I am saying is that the future of Nigeria lies in manufacturing. I think he should rather manage the real sector of the economy. Oil is exhaustible. Japan, China don’t have oil and gas. Yet, they are producing all the electronics and cars we are using.”
He added, “For him to assume the ministerial position of the petroleum resources means that we are still oil dependent in our focus. We should not reduce resources to exhaustible oil and gas. The greatest resource God gives all is the human resources. For me, oil and gas is being mismanaged because the human resources are not well managed.
“President
Buhari
has promised ‘change’ but I have not seen change in that his decision at all. He is just going the way of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. There is danger in that because the oil and gas sector is murky. It is corruption driven. Who will take care of the corrupt people when the person that should do that is also involved? The point I am making is that we want a new approach in handling the oil and gas sector.”
He, however, described President Buhari’s independence speech as very remarkable. He also observed that the country had never been short of ministers but good governance.