Reps insist on 2 oil ministers

Speaking to Weekly Trust in Abuja yesterday, Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity Rep. Victor Ogene (APGA, Anambra) said the parliament’s decision was informed by the fact that the oil and gas industry which accounts for over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange was too large to be manned by one individual. […]

Speaking to Weekly Trust in Abuja yesterday, Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity Rep. Victor Ogene (APGA, Anambra) said the parliament’s decision was informed by the fact that the oil and gas industry which accounts for over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange was too large to be manned by one individual.

 

“Two ministers are not too many, because even lesser ministries have up to three ministers and the Petroleum Minister is the chairman of many agencies in the sector, so, it is unwieldy for one person to handle,” he said.

On the non-implementation of the resolution since it was passed last April by the House, Ogene said, the green chamber believes that President Jonathan would appoint another minister to be in charge of downstream and another for the upstream, but “the system has to be cleaned up first and restore sanity” and as such implementing the subsidy probe report in one fell-swoop is not possible”.