• Buhari
A Lagos lawyer, Nnaemeka Iheonu, has faulted President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing himself as the minister for petroleum, instead of giving the position to someone else.
He stated the president’s action was against the constitution.
He said: “The idea of Buhari being the Minister of Petroleum is somehow unconstitutional. Section 138 of the constitution states that the President shall not hold any other Executive position while in office.
“Therefore, he is not supposed to be occupying any other executive position. He ought to appoint another person who should be accountable to him. As a minister of petroleum, how can he be accountable to himself?”
Iheonu explained that Buhari has a lot of responsibility as president and adding the job of minister to it will pose a lot of challenges to him.
The lawyer stated that if Buhari’s idea of appointing himself a minister is to check corruption in the oil sector, he could equally do so by closely monitoring whoever he appoints to head the ministry.
He urged the president to take a good look at the provision of Section 138 of the constitution and make amends quickly by upgrading Ibe Kachikwu to be a substantive minister of petroleum.
However, Iheonu expressed confidence that Buhari will put a lot of things in the nation in the right direction, calling on Nigerians to support him in building a new nation.