Former minister of Petroleum and erstwhile secretary general of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Alhaji Rilwan Lukman, is dead.
Lukman, who would have officially been 76 years old on August 26, died around 1a.m. yesterday in a hospital in Vienna, Austria fo an undisclosed illness.
Daily Sun learnt that in line with Islamic injunctions, the remains of the mining engineer were expected in Nigeria shortly for burial, which is expected to take place in Zaria, Kaduna State.
This would be after a formal documentation of the incident by the Austrian hospital in compliance with the country’s law.
Lukman was chairman of the defunct Petroleum Industry Law Reform Committee, which effort later culminated in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) now before the National Assembly.
The deceased got different appointments spanning over two decades during the military and post-military era.
He became Nigeria’s first OPEC secretary general between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2000.
He was presidential adviser on Petroleum and Energy Matters to former president Olusegun Obasanjo from 2000 to 2003.
In 2008, the late President Umar Yar’Adua appointed him Minister of Petroleum Resources.
Prior to that, Lukman was Minister of Mines, Power and Steel under the General Muhammadu Buhari regime between 1984 and 1985 and chairman, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) up till February 1990.
He was Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister between January and September 1990 and chaired the board of the defunct Nigeria Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and was at OPEC as president and secretary general in 1986 and 1994 respectively.
Lukman graduated with a higher degree in Mining from the University of Mining and Metallurgy, Leoben, Austria and trained as a mining engineer at the College of Arts, Science and technology, Zaria (now Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) and later Imperial College, London
He had earlier obtained a degree in Mineral Economics from McGill University, Montreal, Canada in 1978 and had honorary doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering from University of Bologna, Italy.
He is survived by a wife and three children
THE SUN
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