By Temitope Enitan
As different ministers under President Muhammadu Buhari are pulling their weight in their respective states and beyond, meeting stakeholders and canvassing for votes for the re-election of the president, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has been coldly indifferent and detached or so. The last time he was seen during electioneering was at the presidential campaign in Warri, the Delta State capital on January 16th.
Independent sources say that while Kachikwu is not a featherweight in a state where the All Progressives Congress, APC, is blessed to have Great Ogboru, with his massive grassroots appeal, as the governorship candidate; and former two-term governor of the state, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, as senatorial candidate, among others, the heat of his weight is not being felt. Kachikwu is being flayed for refusing to pull his weight, which is giving many people close to him worries.
The allegation now is that the minister is a closet supporter of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate. Kachikwu and Atiku have been friends for several years predating his appointment as Minister and Group MD of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation. Another source said Kachikwu has allegedly been bitter with the Buhari-administration since he was removed as Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in 2016.
It would be recalled that Kachikwu was first appointed GMD in August 2015 to wide public acclaim. In November, he was further appointed as Minister of State which he combined with his GMD portfolio. In July 2016, he was removed as NNPC GMD and replaced by Dr Maikanti Baru. Indeed, since the appointment of Baru, the relationship between the two First Class brains has been frosty. This climaxed with the leak of a memo Kachikwu wrote to the President accusing his successor at the NNPC of, among other things, insubordination and sharp practices.
Baru did not take it lying low as he fired back with the same venom until the presidency waded in. Despite concerted efforts by the presidency to thaw the ice between the two eggheads in the wake of the leaked memo, recent revelations have proven that there is no end in sight to their long-drawn face off. Dr Kachikwu was also said to have felt slighted that he doesn’t have as much access to his Principal as he wanted which might have resorted to his current aloofness. Does he think he would fare better under an Atiku administration?
