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...For a better society... Wednesday, December 01 2004 Vol 13 No.44 News Editorial Politics Opinion Features Foreign News The Arts Sports Education Business Money/Market Travels/Tourism Property/Environment Columnists View From America Why I’m oil minister -- Obasanjo INTENSE lobby for the position of petroleum resources minister due to "the belief that there is money there" is the reason President Olusegun Obasanjo has since 1999 retained the portfolio. The President explained the position yesterday in Owerri while rounding off a two-day visit to Imo State. He said both the petroleum and transport ministries were the most sought after by lobbyists. "Because of the belief that there is money there (in petroleum)", he said, the tendency for malpractice was high. "That is why I am not giving it to anybody," the President stated. He commended his administration for being the first to appoint a woman Dr. Kema Chikwe as Transport Minister, in 1999, describing as untrue the claim that the womenfolk were being marginalised by government. Dwelling on other matters, the President said the administration had allocated N2.5 billion to micro-credit, out of the N17.5 billion appropriated to the agricultural bank and N3 billon of the N15 billion made available to the Bank of Industry (BOI) in budget 2005. He charged the people of Imo State to set up co-operative association to be able to access those funds easily, adding that another N5 billion was also allocated to the mortgage bank. He said eight states from the six geo-political zones would benefit from some funds from Finland and Sweden to develop their co-operatives to enable them to access other available funds. The President later directed his media office to employ a blind communications graduate, Kajetan Nwachukwu, saying ti was in line with government’s policy of employing physically-challenged people. � 2004 @ Champion Newspapers Limited (All Right Reserved). Powered By dnetsystems.net dnet�

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