Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has assured Nigerians that the lingering scarcity of petrol would be over in the first week of April.
Kachikwu, who appeared before the Senate Committee On Petroleum Downstream on Tuesday in Abuja, when he was summoned, also apologised for remarks he made at the State House last week that he is not a magician and that the situation could persist for two more months.
The Minister told the Senate that he is not a typical politician who is trained on how to speak to electorates on the language they understand.
He said, “I do apologise if the comments that I made jocularly with my friends in the press about being a magician offended some Nigerians. It wasn’t meant to be.
“It was a side jocular issue and I did go on to explain what needed to be done. I didn’t think it would create the kind of hyperbole that it did.”
“Let me first admit that I am not your typically experienced politician; I am a technocrat, I come to work. So some of the phraseologies that I might use, while being acceptable in the arena in which I play, obviously will not be acceptable in the public political arena,” he added.
“So if anybody’s sensitivities are offended by those, I totally apologise. I’m a very humble person, I’m not the one to even imagine the thoughts that I dictate to Nigerians,” he further said.
Kachikwu stressed that he is not ready to resign as many have suggested. The Minister said he has a work to perform and he must do it before thinking of bowing out. He advised those planning to storm Abuja to ask for his resignation to save their scarce fuel.
“I am going to deliver on the job the President gave me until he deems it fit for me to go. So let’s not waste our time, it’s going to cost us more fuel to drive vehicles to Abuja to do that (protest),” he said at the questioning.
Kachikwu highlighted to the Senate the three major problems causing fuel scarcity in Nigeria; the inability of petroleum marketers to import fuel, the NNPC being burdened with importing 100% of fuel for local consumption and acts of vandalism.
