“Yes, I Want To Break Up The NNPC” – Buhari

President Muhammudu Buhari has confirmed reports that he intends to break up the Nigerian National Petroleum Commission (NNPC).

The president has also revealed that fuel scarcity is one of the issues his government aims to tackle. According to the president, Nigeria has four refineries and most of the refinery infrastructures have been vandalized which has led to marketers buying from the black market.

Buhari was speaking on the Good Morning show on NTA, Monday morning.

Buhari also said the activities of the militants in the creeks cannot make it possible for Nigeria to access the full profits of crude oil production. Asked what he would look out in a person he could appoint a minister, Buhari said: “We need hardworking Nigerians, experienced, committed to be in-charge of ministries. A lot of institutions in Nigeria are compromised. Everybody was in himself and God for all of us.”

“It is most unfortunate because they were good people, experienced, educated but everybody seemed to be working for himself.  “We have to look for technocrats, politicians and decent people in good class to be in-charge of ministries or government parastatals. We will try as much as possible to choose citizens who have been in the system.

He continued: “It has taken so much time because a number of possible appointees have been compromised. So what we are doing is to reduce the number of compromised  people.” On the issue of the National Assembly crisis, Buhari said he would respect the constitution in electing assembly leaders. He however appealed to senate president, Bukola Saraki and speaker of house of representatives, Yakubu Dogara to put the interest of the All Progressive Party (APC) and the assembly ahead of their personal interest.

He said: “The only way I can interfere  is to appeal to their conscience as we can over go over this issue for too long. We (APC) cannot lose the battle and then lose the war. We must not allow anybody’s personal ambition disrupt the government.

“We cannot allow the PDP to take over the government again because of the the crisis and this is extremely disturbing. I dont want personal ambition to cut short our success.” Speaking on the challenges of being president for the past two months, Buhari said: “Unfortunately, what we met was what we foresaw earlier. The insecurity, the unemployment of youths and federal companies and parastatals are currently in tatters.”

In a related development, Buhari has accused some former ministers of “selling about one million barrels of stolen crude oil per day” and diverting the gains to personal accounts. The president also vowed to probe politicians and minsters who would be found implicated.  Buhari alleged that:“250,000 barrels per day of Nigerian crude are being stolen and people sell and put the money into individual accounts.”  He said the United States and other developed countries are helping Nigeria trace those accounts.