Presidency backs Baru, weighs options on Kachikwu

The future of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, in then cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari is hanging in the balance, The Nations is reporting.
According to the newspaper, Buhari is weighing the several options before him in dealing with Kachikwu over his allegation against the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru.
Kachikwu had accused Baru in a letter to Buhari of awarding $25 billion contracts without recourse to the Board of the NNPC and unilaterally appointing staff into the NNPC and other parastatals under the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, where Buhari is the substantive Minister.
The Nation said it learnt that having found Baru not guilty of corrupt practices, the Presidency gave the GMD the clearance to release a fact-sheet in the matter to the public.
Kachikwu is said to be consulting his associates, stakeholders and colleagues on his next move.
He has been cautioned against any act capable of being seen as confrontational, according to a source, who pleaded not to be named because of “the sensitivity of the matter”.
Kachikwu’s associates, it was learnt, cited the travails of ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Prof. Tam David-West, with the military administration of ex-President Ibrahim Babangida.
One of the alternatives being suggested by his friends is the possibility of voluntary exit from the cabinet “to preserve his integrity”.
It was not clear last night the step Kachikwu would take after it was clear that the Presidency might have backed Baru.
The GMD of NNPC described the $25 billion contract figure raised by Kachikwu as “humongous” because “no money was lost and no process has been breached”.
The President, The Nation learnt, felt scandalised by “unfounded allegations of corruption bordering on phantom $25 billion contracts”.
The allegations allegedly attracted concerns from other nations and some oil producing countries.
President Buhari, who is said to have felt hurt by the development, “refused to act on the spur of the moment because his image and the reputation of his administration were involved”.