The President has a longstanding reluctance to act in response to newspaper headlines: in 2017 he left in post Ibe Kachikwu the then Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Maikanti Baru the Group Managing Director Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation who were then engaged in a visceral newspaper campaign against one another...
Kyari's predecessor Maikanti Baru supported Buhari's personal preference to explore for oil in the Chad Basin in the North East where he also hails from...
He is now under far less pressure than his fellow economics chiefs Emmanuel Kachikwu Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation managing director Maikanti Baru and Power Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola (AC Vol 58 No 11 A date with destiny & Vol 58 No 21 When oil chiefs fall out)...
The budget followed local difficulties for Buhari – a public slanging match between two key appointees in the oil and gas sector Ibe Kachikwu Deputy Oil Minister and Maikanti Baru head of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation...
But he did not distance himself from direct allegations that Maikanti Baru NNPC group managing director had signed off on trading and other contracts worth more than US$20 billion as well as senior internal appointments without following due process...