Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, has called for the privatisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Speaking on Monday at the 7th edition of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism lecture series, el-Rufai said that the corporation had been used as a conduit pipe for draining the resources of the country.
“This country can no longer afford to maintain an NNPC that arrogantly, unlawfully and unconstitutionally spends an unhealthy proportion of national oil earnings on itself,” he said.
“We should replace the NNPC with brand new organisations that are fit for purpose: – among others – a commercialised and corporatised national oil company and new industry regulators.
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“This new national oil company should be capitalised once and for all, and then freed to fend for itself like other national oil companies do, seeking its financing independently from the financial markets and paying due taxes and royalties.
“The corruption and nonchalance that have hobbled the NNPC are symptoms that its best days are over. We should give it a deserved funeral so that a new institution, active and nimble, can promptly replace it.
“NNPC’s subsidiaries and associated companies can be reviewed, restructured and privatised or commercialised as appropriate consistent with national interest and objectives.”
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3 comments
Dissolve NNPC form a new oil body and employ only northerners, Privatize NNPC so that El rufai, and his cronies will buy it off. Oga El rufai it won’t work for you. Cunny man die, cunny man burry him
Unfortunately, what he fails to realise is that the NNPC’s ills are not unique to the company. Without reform like the PIB, replacing the NNPC simply means we will continue to have the same problems under a different name.
NNPC has never been allowed to function without consistent Government interference. The corporation should be allowed to function as an independent profit – driven enterprise. It must be told that In the previous government dispensations, Most bulk outflows / payments from the corporation has the input of the Presidency, directly or remotely. That is why the RESULT of all the previous Invitations of NNPC Personnels to the National Assembly yielded nothing. Such personnels dare not point accusing fingers on the Presidency. Whatever this current regime likes let them do to NNPC ; but if the Presidency continue the OVER-BEARING INTERFERENCE then the situation will be irredeemable after the tenure of this regime. GOD BLESS NIGERIA !!!!