LAGOS, 9 October 2003 — Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo’s chief adviser on oil, Rilwanu Lukman, has resigned just three months after his reappointment to the job, the president’s spokeswoman told reporters yesterday. “I’ve just resigned and I’ll be leaving in early November,” Lukman told reporters.
Lukman did not elaborate on why he was leaving his job. Lukman, 65, has held the post since 1999. “He has disengaged from the service,” Remi Oyo said after a Cabinet meeting. Earlier, the news agency of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries quoted Lukman in Vienna confirming his resignation.
News of his resignation came as Nigeria faced the threat of a general strike and fears of disruption to oil production and exports over Obasanjo’s fuel price policy.
“I will be grateful for the confirmation of Your Excellency’s generous approval that I withdraw my services from public service with effect from 1st of November 2003,” Lukman said in a letter to Obasanjo.
“It has been for me a most rewarding mission, which I will cherish for the rest of my life,” he added, without giving further information on why he had resigned. Industry officials said Lukman has been unhappy with the government’s oil policy for some time. Lukman shared power over Nigeria’s lucrative oil business with the NNPC, headed by Jackson Gaius-Obaseki.
“Lukman wasn’t happy with the changes that Obaseki made at NNPC, apparently without consulting him,” said one Nigeria oil industry analyst, who requested not to be named. NNPC in August sacked 28 of its top management staff after Obasanjo came under pressure to stamp out corruption and inefficiency.
Meanwhile, one of Nigeria’s two main oil unions, the white-collar body PENGASSAN, yesterday suspended its threat to join a planned nationwide strike after fuel marketers agreed to reverse a controversial price hike, its president said. It was not immediately clear whether the decision would be followed by the rest of the labor movement, but leaders of the blue-collar NUPENG oil union had earlier expressed hopes that a deal would be reached. “The marketers of petroleum products have agreed to revert to the status quo ante, that is of a 34 naira pump price for PMS (petrol),” PENGASSAN’s president Louis Ogbeifun said.
