By Elohor Igbru
The Federal Government has absolutely no business in the business of running the oil and gas sector and declared that the All Progressive Congress (APC) has failed in that sector and should hand off control immediately, governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-rufai said yesterday.
It would be noted that this was the position sold by former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar in 2019 when he was presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Atiku was thoroughly criticized by members of the APC including El-Rufai at the time.
The governor was speaking at KADINVEST, an economic summit in Kaduna.
El-rufai: “Any sector that the Federal Government tries to get into gets messed up. Any area that the government can get out of it should. Because NNPC claims that subsidy has taken all the oil revenues, I don’t believe that. So, the government should sell everything -the oil and gas sector. I have been making this point since 1999 when I was head of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). I have not changed my mind.”
The governor also said nothing has changed in NNPC despite the rename and rebranding.
“Nothing has changed for NNPC other than adding ‘L’ to it for the limited. They are still taking our money. They are still declaring profits that we don’t see the dividends. The government should get out of whatever is left of electricity. Leave it to the private sector. Maintain the environment. The money will come.”
The NNPC was transformed from a corporation to a limited liability company in July 2022.
