Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, former Minister of Petroleum Resources, recalls how former President Muhammadu Buhari told him that he could not afford to pay a ransom to kidnappers if he is abducted by Niger Delta militants.
Speaking during the launch of the book entitled ‘According to The President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman Experience,’ written by Malam Garba Shehu, Kachikwu remarked how Buhari feared for his safety shortly after he was appointed to negotiate a peace deal with the militants.
He explained that it is to the credit of former President Buhari that he was able to ramp up oil production from 800,000 to 2 million barrels per day after he brokered the deal with the militants, with the support of the late Chief Edwin Clark-led Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF).
“When we assumed position, militancy had so ravaged the oil sector that we were producing about 800,000 barrels and barely meeting the sustainability of the country. And so I went to him one morning and said, ‘Look, we’re not going to be able to solve this problem unless I take a tour and go out to the hinterlands and to the forest and meet some of these militants.’
“And he said, ‘Ibe, are you alright?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘What if when you get there, they kidnap you and hold you to ransom?’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t think they would.’
“Eventually, I went there and spent two nights in the forest with them. And ultimately, that led to the PANDEF ceasefire agreement that we had. So that was the nature of the person that he was.”
He disclosed that former President Buhari subsequently met with the PANDEF leadership after he, alongside former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, persuaded him to fulfil his fatherly role.
Kachikwu prayed to God to grant the former President good health, insisting that Buhari gave his best in the service of the country while he held sway between 2015 and 2023.
