Kachikwu, at Senate, pledges to end fuel queues in April
Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum while answering questions from the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream on the lingering fuel scarcity in the country at National Assembly Abuja on Tuesday 29/03/16.Photo Ladidi Lucy Elukpo.
• Apologises for crisis,remarks • Rejects resignation calls
Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, yesterday apologised to Nigerians for the pains being inflicted on them by the persistent fuel scarcity in the country.
He lamented that his statement about not being a magician was exaggerated, adding that it was not meant to downplay the seriousness of the problem at hand.
The minister also rejected calls from certain quarters asking for his resignation over the crisis, just as he announced that fuel queues would disappear within the first two weeks of April.
Kachikwu, who yesterday appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Down Stream) to explain the causes of the fuel crisis, however, told the lawmakers that he could not change his style and begin to talk like politicians, insisting that he remained a competent technocrat.
Addressing the panel, the minister said: “I share the pains of Nigerians, I feel that pain everyday when I walk the streets. On Easter day, I was in Lagos monitoring fuel distribution and the depots. I have given 24 hours attention to the problems.
“I have continued to work with one sole purpose which is that every problem must have a solution and I think that is the reason I was picked.
“I do apologise for the comment that I made jocularly with my friends in the press about being a magician and it offended some Nigerians. It was not meant to be serious; it was a side jocular issue.
“I did go on to explain what needed to be done, I did not know that it would create the kind of hyperbole (exaggeration) that it did.”
Kachikwu added: “Let me first admit that I am not a typically experienced politician, I am a technocrat: I come to work.
“Some of the phraseologies that I may use, while being acceptable in the arena in which I play obviously will not be acceptable in the public political arena.
“So if any body’s sensibilities were offended by those, I totally apologise.”
The minister made it clear that it was too difficult for him to voice what had been rehearsed for him before the committee.
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3 Comments
Lesson learnt for Ibe Kachikwu: Nigerians don’t need jokes from their public officers. They have Basketmouth and Co. Just do your job.
NIGERIA WE HAIL THEE!!!
Prayers, prayers and more prayers. What for?? Only witless indolent people depend on prayers waiting for miracle. Living in water will never make a man become a fish. Flying millions and millions of kilometers will never make a man become an eagle or dove, you know a bird. Praying twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, thousands years in life will not change our lamentable, heartbroken situations in every sense you care to think of. All we need in Nigeria is coordinated efforts to fix Nigeria. Yes, FIX Nigeria because we are in a dead end street. We need INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT from A to Z. Citing Biblical words is surely not the way out. God is not an engineer therefore, HE cannot build electricity generators fired whether by gas, coal, wind, solar and hydroelectric. Neither can HE build water dam. We need all these sources to move our economy forward, to develop Nigeria. No energy, no development. The only thing we hear about are too much talk and fallacy, but no action which makes Nigeria the worst place to live on earth. The worst place to live on earth is decidedly not my personal opinion. It is in google. What really bewilders me in all these issues is, there have been many examples in recent years that prayer is not the solution. Just to cite some incidents; the collapse of SYNAGOGUE´S building, fire out break in some churches in some states and many others issues reported or unreported are enough signs to observe. What is really disturbing is; with all these, gullible Nigerians have not learnt that all these apostles of evil milking Nigerians of their lean earnings are deceitful and charlatans.They are only interested in their foreign bank accounts and ostentation of their private jets. You see, God feeds on Satan, when Satan vanishes, God will die of hunger.
Ok Kachukwu. Lets bury the hatchet. Please get on with what we need to become net exporter of refined petroleum & other allied products. Lets develop the complex oil value chain to create manufacturing bye products and put a vigorous marketing machine behind the efforts in order to reach more international markets.
We will review and take appropriate action.