From Juliana Taiwo- Obalonye, Abuja
VICE President Yemi Osinbajo has said President Muhammadu Buhari administration would appoint a Coordinating Minister of the economy; a practice introduced in the last administration.
He made the clarification while receiving the Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Jonathan Richardson, in his office.
He has also assured the nation that the administration would keep its pledge to run an open and transparent government, commending the public opening of technical and commercial bids for the purchase and sale of Nigeria’s crude oil which saw 278 firms bidding in Abuja.
Osinbajo said:“We are not going to have a system like where there was a coordinating minister. No, there would not be anything like that.’’
He said as Vice President, his role is “to ensure that everyone is involved in economic activities, that there is a way by which the President is fully informed of what everyone is doing such that we are all on the same page and to make it easier for the President to make decisions.’’
Speaking more on the 278 firms openly bidding for the nation’s oil, the Vice President said: “As you know, our most important revenue earner is crude oil and whatever is associated with it ought to be transparently handled .That’s why you’ve seen that the crude oil round of bids, the term bids, were done in the open and that is a tradition that we intend to continue.’’
Osinbajo, however, added that “every Nigerian will be entitled to see for his or her self that there is a fair process and that process is one that they themselves can interrogate and that’s exactly what we intend to do.
That processes will be open, accounts will be open, people will be able to see for themselves, they would know what is going on. That is the entitlement of every citizen of Nigeria.’’
According to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, “Nigerians before now only found out about the crude oil bids through an official announcement of the winner in a process that had little or no trace of public accountability”.
Source : SunOnline
