Former Minister of Aviation and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has stated that the $26 billion contract allegedly awarded by Dr. Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is not unconnected with President Muhammadu Buhari’s bid for a second term in office in 2019.
Fani- Kayode and General Muhammadu Buhari The ex-minister stated this Wednesday on his Twitter Handle @realFFK, while reacting to Ibe Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources’ letter to President Buhari, accusing Baru of awarding a $26 billion contract without regards to due process. The letter which is currently dominating commentaries in both the electronic and print media caught the attention of Fani-Kayode who for the umpteenth time, chided the Commander-in-Chief for Kachikwu’s ordeal.
He said “Ibe Kachikwu does not appreciate the fact that to Muhammadu Buhari and his tiny cabal of ethnic supremacists, pillaging $26 billion from the Northern (sorry “Nigerian”) National Petroleum Corporation is nothing. Where else do you expect him to get the funds for his 2019 campaign?” he queried, adding that the Minister ought not to have been surprised as stated in his letter.
He further added that the pains of the Minister are nothing but a continuation of the treatment being meted out to the Igbo ethnic nationality. “Why is Ibe Kachikwu surprised that he has not been granted access to Muhammadu Buhari and that the Northern Managing Director of NNPC is undermining him? Did he expect it to be any different? Has he forgotten he is Igbo?” he wrote, adding that in the reasoning of the President, “All Southerners are slaves.”
Kachikwu had in his letter, lamented the shoddy treatment meted out to him by Baru in the past one year, saying he was left with no other option than to pen a letter to President Buhari after several efforts on his part to see him proved abortive. While it is not clear what would become the fate of Dr. Baru in the wake of the allegations against him, there are insinuations that the Honourable Minister may throw in the towel, if there’s no official eagerness to sanction the NNPC boss for insubordination.
