Kachikwu: Buhari will Allocate Oil Blocks to South-south Indigenes

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has said President Muhammadu Buhari has not allocated a single oil block since he came into office.

Kachikwu said when the president eventually starts, South-south indigenes would have their share.

At a town hall meeting in Uyo, the Akwa-Ibom State capital, organised by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, a Nigerian asked the minister why oil block allocations favoured the North rather than the South-south, where most oil blocks are located.

Answering, Kachikwu, said this was not the doing of President Buhari, emphasising that the president would follow due process in allocation of oil blocks when the time comes.

Kachikwu also disagreed with the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, on the establishment and maintenance of the Maritime University in Akwa-Ibom.

“I disagree with the minister of transport. Any facility in the South-south, we should work towards developing it, I don’t care the circumstance. It is not my business whether land was valued at 19 or 10 million,” he said responding to Amaechi’s claim that land for the university was valued at N13 billion.

“That has nothing to do with development of infrastructure. As far as I know, so much has already gone into that, so much fiscal asset has been developed. We are not going to throw away the baby and the bath water.

“We’ll deal with the issues but the university will be developed. If he (Amaechi) doesn’t want it in maritime, I will take it in Petroleum.

“On the issue of negotiations, again I disagree with him. There’s no theatre in the world where conflicts are being resolved through battle. It doesn’t matter who’s right, who’s wrong.”