The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Abubarkar Atiku, has promised to privatise oil refineries in Nigeria if elected president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023.
Abubakar, who was Nigeria’s vice president for eight years, said in his official twitter handle yesterday that his government would work to make Nigeria the hub for crude oil refining in the African continent.
“I’m going to privatise our crude oil refineries and make Nigeria the hub of crude oil refining in Africa,” stated Mr Abubakar.
The PDP presidential hopeful, under whose watch the privatisation of many government agencies and parastatals took place under the Olusegun Obasanjo regime, has long pushed for privatising the state-owned oil company and other industries, including the Transmission Company of Nigeria [TCN].
Last August, Atiku voiced his support for the privatisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] Limited, stressing that the move will improve the oil business management mix handled by the company, and yet fulfill stakeholder objectives.
According to him, it is not the duty of the federal government to engage in business transactions. As such “it is the right time for the private sector to take over the affairs of the energy sector in Nigeria, as it obtains in developed countries,” Atiku stated.
The main opposition party’s candidate also stated that if elected in 2023, he will implement the Oronsanye report’s recommendations to reduce government spending to address the nation’s present economic problems.
“The Oronsaye report (on cutting cost of governance in the face of dwindling economic fortunes) is our baby. If you elect us, we will complete the job,” he tweeted.
In 2012, the Oronsaye committee sent in an 800-page report that called for the merger and dissolution of about 102 parastatals and government organisations, some of which were self-funding.
Unfortunately, the Oransanye committee found intense competition among multiple overlapping government entities, leading to bad blood among agencies and needless waste of government funds.
The pressure groups and many other quarters who felt they stood to lose if the report was implemented, fought the committed and its report until it was dumped
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