Understanding a misunderstood minister

It was meant to underscore the enormity of the task in the petroleum sector. Ibe Kachikwu, Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, said two weeks back: “One of the trainings  I did not receive is that of a magician, but I am working very hard to ensure some of these issues go away”. The statement was to […]

It was meant to underscore the enormity of the task in the petroleum sector. Ibe Kachikwu, Nigerian Minister of Petroleum, said two weeks back: “One of the trainings  I did not receive is that of a magician, but I am working very hard to ensure some of these issues go away”. The statement was to buttress the fact that the lingering queues at filling stations across the country would not disappear overnight as only a man with mystical powers could make it so. Kachikwu’s statement was obviously well intended. It was made based on the reality on ground. However, it appears that fact, or the construction of the statement did not go down well with some Nigerians, particularly the elite.
Shortly after the Kachikwu statement, All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, lashed out at the minister, saying he was insensitive to the plight of Nigerians who bear the brunt of the untold hardship arising from the fuel scarcity. “Perhaps, the statement by Kachikwu was made in a moment of unguarded frustration or was an awkward attempt of a joke. Whatever the moment, it was untimely and off-putting. The remark did not sit well with the Nigerian people, they were as right to feel insulted as the minister was wrong to have said such a thing”, Tinubu stated. He didn’t stop there. He continued: “He was basically telling Nigerian that they should be lucky that they are getting the inadequate supply they now suffer and that they should just be quiet and endure the shortage for several weeks more. This is not a joking matter”.
Indeed, hardship cannot be taken for comedy. Hardship is not a song to be danced to. Perhaps, realizing the misinterpretation arising from that comment, Kachikwu, while appearing before the Senate Committee on the Downstream Sector, said he was sorry. That is demonstrating true leadership. That shows a man committed to true governance! The action of the minister is not only commendable, it should be emulated. It shows we have a listening leadership. He told the Senate Committee: “I do apologise if a comment I make jocularly with my friends in the press about not being a magician offends some Nigerians, it was not meant to be.
It is a side jocular issue and I did go ahead to explain what needed to be done. I did not intend to create this kind of hyperbole that it did. I share the pains of Nigerians I feel that pain everyday. I walk the street and those who are following my trajectories since I assumed office would see that even on Christmas day, I was at the refineries. On  Easter day, I was in Lagos monitoring fuel distribution at the depots”. He promised that the long queues will disappeared by the second week of April.
It is true that Kachikwu was not coerced into taking the job of petroleum minister as explained by Tinubu. However,  it is an incontrovertible  fact that he was among the best in the industry-which was why he was appointed to oversee the petroleum sector. In other words, he never lobbied to be made minister. He is a technocrat who likes to say it the way it is, however bad the situation, hoping that, by being blunt, the people would be able to appreciate the enormity of what is being done, and, as such, support him to get to the desired goal. Tinubu was right in his assessment. Kachikwu was wrong in his pronouncement. The missing point, to me, is in the construction. If Kachikwu had constructed the sentence in such a way that it would be melodious to the ears, perhaps, nobody would have raised eyebrows. However, to achieve the desired result of self sufficiency in the petroleum sector cannot be one man’s job or a day’ s matter; it will require a collective effort. If, indeed, we want Kachikwu to succeed; if, indeed, we want to eliminate queues in our filling stations, we must first of all believe in him and then give him total support.
We should appreciate what Kachikwu is doing to ease the challenges the country is currently facing. It is over ten months since this government came to power, and about six months since Babatunde Raji Fashola took over the power ministry. One would have thought that Fashola’s Midas touch, as seen in Lagos State, would have been replicated in the power sector. Meanwhile, power generation has continued to drop. This has nothing to do with Fashola’s competence. The support Fashola needs is the cooperation Nigerians have continued to give him irrespective of the present hardship being experienced. In other words, no matter how ingenious a person may be, he or she would definitely need others to succeed and that success is largely dependent on the cooperation given by the others he or she is working with.
If there is no vandalism of the pipelines, if the road network is good, if crude price had not dropped in the international market, and, most importantly, if the refineries are in good shape, if  all these variables( which unfortunately the minister has no control over)were  working positively for the Nigerian economy, nobody would be asking Kachikwu to resign as some people have been suggesting. Nigerians appear to have trust and confidence in Kachikwu. As the saying goes, he who the parent likes, he chastises. Kachikwu has been chastised even though his comment was well intended but misconstrued. He has equally apologized. And that is the hall mark of true leadership.
Aberuagba wrote in from Lagos.