Following explosive revelations by Vice President Abubakar Atiku to Saharareporters (http://www.saharareporters.com/di001.php?diid=33) in an exclusive interview revealing how President Obasanjo ran Nigeria's ministry of petroleum resources secretly, the president earlier today abandoned the minsitry of petroleum resources to the former minister of state for petroleum resources -Mr. Edmund Daukoru renaming his new portfolio as "Energy Minister". Mr. Obasanjo had been in charge of the petroleum resources ministry-the most lucrative federally controlled ministry- since 1999 when he assumed power.
Since Saharareporters interview with Alhaji Abubakar, the VP to Mr. Obasanjo currently vacationing in the US, the president has backed out of an aggressive attack on the office of the vice president. Since Monday when the interview appeared on the streets of Nigerian cities in the current edition of TheNEWS magazine, the president has reversed himself in a number of initiatives aimed at sacking the president from office. The lawsuit earlier filed against him has since been withdrawn, the presidency has denounced aides who made pronouncements on the status of the VP and also denied that there were plans to arrest the VP on corruption charges instead stating that he still enjoys "immunity from prosecution" as the Vice President.
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ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's Edmund Daukoru has been promoted to energy minister in a cabinet reshuffle that saw the number of ministries reduced to 19 from 27, the official list of new ministers showed on Wednesday.
Previously, Daukoru's title was minister of state for petroleum resources and President Olusegun Obasanjo was the minister, although Daukoru ran the day-to-day business of the petroleum resources ministry.
That has now been merged with the old power ministry to form the new energy ministry, with Daukoru at the helm.
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No explanation was given as to why Obasanjo had relinquished the crucial petroleum portfolio, which he had held since becoming president in 1999. Obasanjo is due to step down after elections in April.
OPEC member Nigeria gets the bulk of its revenue from its oil industry, which is the eighth-biggest in the world.
Daukoru just finished a one-year term as president of OPEC, handing over to Mohammed al-Hamli of the United Arab Emirates. Daukoru hosted an OPEC meeting in Abuja on December 14 that was the first to be held in Nigeria in more than three decades.
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