A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Olisa Agbakoba, faulted the argument by NNPC that there was no law requiring recourse to Minister of State for Petroleum Resources in the award of contracts.
Agbakoba argued that being Chairman of NNPC Board, the Minister of State, who supervises the corporation, must be carried along.
The former President of Nigerian Bar Association added, “It cannot be the position of the law because the Minister of State (for Petroleum Resources) is Chairman of the Board of NNPC and Chairman of the Board of the NNPC, together with the board, plays a corporate governance role.
“It is true that the President is the Chairman of the Board of Governors but if the President himself has appointed the Minister of State to be the chairman, then my conclusion is that the President is deemed to have delegated his powers to the Minister of State.
“So, Minister of State is the proper, legally-appointed chairman because that power has been delegated to him by the President, just the same way that when the President was not well, his powers were delegated to the Vice-President.
“So, if the Minister of State is Chairman of the Board, then the basic rules of corporate governance make it clear, without argument, that what the board does is to supervise the activities of the corporation. That is simple Company Law.
“So, the GMD is not correct at all; he’s not correct.”
Another SAN, Mr Yusuf Ali, disagreed with Agbakoba, saying NNPC’s position was in order.
Ali said Buhari’s portfolio as Minister of Petroleum Resources made it legal for him to directly supervise NNPC.
Ali believed the NNPC boss was in order to report directly to Buhari.
The SAN said, “We should not forget that the President is also Minister of Petroleum Resources. This means that NNPC is answerable to him and he can directly be in charge. Whether it is right for the President to double as a minister and supervise the NNPC is another line of argument.
“However, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu, still has a right to get clarifications on the issues he raised. But it is not out of place for the President, who is also the minister, to supervise NNPC.”
Also, Mr Jiti Ogunye argued that NNPC was legally correct to exclude the corporation’s board in contract awards.
Ogunye said under the Public Procurement Act, approval for award of contracts in public parastatals was done at two levels – the parastatal’s Tenders Board or the Federal Executive Council – depending on the volume of the contract.
He added that what had given room for controversy was that the constitution did not envisage that the President would double as Minister of Petroleum Resources.
Ogunye said, “If the contract exceeds the threshold, the ministerial Tenders Board will process that contract award consideration and send it to Federal Executive Council for approval.
“Now, what NNPC is saying in the statement they pushed out is that in NNPC Act, there is no provision of a Minister of State, which is true but it is also not expected that the President would be a minister in addition to being the President.
He stated that in view of the peculiar circumstance, the three authorities ought to work in tandem with full disclosure, saying what was playing out underlined the need for cohesion in the Buhari administration.
But another Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Wahab Shittu, said Baru, as a matter of due process and protocol, ought not to have bypassed Kachikwu to meet with the President.
Shittu stated, “I think it is a matter of due process and respect for protocol. Baru ought to have gone through Kachikwu rather than approaching the President directly, more so when Buhari has appointed Kachikwu as Chairman of Board of NNPC.
“I don’t think it is proper for Baru to bypass Kachikwu in getting to Buhari. There could be certain facts that are not known to the public and we must insist on a thorough probe; a full-blown enquiry is needed to really know what happened and until then one cannot blame either Baru or Kachikwu.”
In his reaction, the lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Mr Shehu Sani, urged Buhari to set up a presidential panel to probe the crisis between Kachikwu and Baru.
Sani, who is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, nominated former Minister of Petroleum and Energy and Buhari’s associate, Mr Tam David-West; or Mr Jubril Aminu, a former Minister of Education and Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United States to head the panel.
The lawmaker, in a Facebook post on Monday, called for the suspension of Kachikwu and Baru during the probe.
The post read, “PMB should set up a presidential committee, led by Mr Tam David-West or Mr Jubril Aminu, to investigate the issues in NNPC. Also, the GMD and Minister of State should temporarily step aside.
“PMB must take this issue seriously because the figure of ‘$25bn, whether true or false or exaggerated, can stick in the memory of Nigerians for a long time and will cast a dark shadow on the legacy of the administration.”
Sani had in a similar post on Thursday urged Buhari to stop being Minister of Petroleum Resources and appoint someone Nigerians could hold accountable for the position.
Punch
