The Peoples Democratic Party has debunked claims from several quarters that the current Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Ibe Kachikwu was discovered by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking on Channels Television, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, availed that former President Goodluck Jonathan had already planned on replacing Diezani Alison-Madueke with Kachikwu as the Petroleum Minister about 2 years ago.
He said: “Ibe Kachikwu was supposed to be Minister of Petroleum under PDP two years ago; he is not a new discovery.”
On President Buhari heading the Petroleum Ministry, Metuh said: “If the President handles the petroleum industry and does anything dishonest, we will expose him and tell Nigerians.”
Metuh went on to speak on the PDP’s role as an opposition party. He said: “The style we are bringing is constructive criticisms because the essence is not about winning. It is about serving the people. We want to serve the Nigerian people – that is why we are in politics.
“When we were in government, the then opposition government (APC) did certain things that were indecent and not good for the progress or unity of our country.
“Any time there was a terrorist attack on the country, we had lots of condemnation of the government and it made the terrorists emboldened. The insurgents were dividing us along ethnic and religious lines and the APC were promoting it.
“As an opposition party, we have decided that we will not adopt the same tactics. We have not abused Mr. President; we do not abuse his office.
“We limit ourselves to issues, providing alternatives and options to his policies and programmes, although we haven’t seen any yet.”
