Rilwanu Lukman, ex-petroleum minister dies at 76

Rilwanu Lukman, former Minister of Petroleum Resources and past secretary general of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, is dead. He died Monday, July 21, in Austria at the age of 76.

Lukman, who was born on August 26 1938 in Zaria, Kaduna State, was appointed Minister of Mines, Power and Steel between 1984 and 1985 and later Minister of Petroleum Resources from 1986-1989. As Petroleum Minister, he served as President of OPEC Conference for several consecutive terms from 1985 to 1989.

He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the defunct National Electric Power Authority, NEPA, from 1993 to 1994. From 1995 to 2000 Lukman was elected as Secretary General of OPEC.

It was from his position as Secretary-General at the OPEC Secretariat in Vienna, Austria that, in 2000 he was formally invited by Olusegun Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria and appointed as Presidential adviser on Petroleum and Energy Matters to the Federal Government of Nigeria and Chairman of the NNPC, until November 2003, when he voluntarily retired from public service.

He was later exhumed from retirement by the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua administration to serve again as Minister of Petroleum Resources from 2008 to 2010.