Don't sell national assets to cronies, Obasanjo tells Buhari

28-09-2016 

Former President Oluse­gun Obasanjo has en­dorsed the growing calls on the Federal Government to sell some national assets to bail the country out of the current recession.

However, he cautioned President Muhammadu Bu­hari against selling the assets to his family members, public officials and their siblings, and other rent seekers.

Obasanjo, who spoke on Tuesday in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said the proposed sale of the assets is a viable op­tion for getting Nigeria out of its economic challenges.

He told participants at the Conference of the National Council of Finance and Eco­nomic Development (NA­COFED) in Abeokuta that the government should sell 49 percent of the Nigerian Na­tional Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The former President said: “Selling national assets during a recession time like this is not a bad thing,” but he charged the government to come out clean on what it intends to do.

He said the process of selling the assets should be trans­parent so that every willing Ni­gerian would have access to them.

Obasanjo said the apprehen­sions of many Nigerians were not unconnected with the way national assets had been sold in the past and how the processes were sabotaged by cabals.

The former president warned that such assets should not be sold to cabals, friends, family members and relations of people in government like it was done in the past.

He said: “Look, NNPC was run as a personal entity, even the Central Bank was also run that way; they write notes to the Central Bank to release so much money.

“We cannot have a country run that way. We started NNPC about the same time Norway started Statoil and look at where we are.

“I said it this morning, two institutions that were not tam­pered with badly or not tam­pered with at all in the last six years were the NLNG and pen­sion fund which is going to about N6 trillion which has cap­tured only seven million peo­ple out of over 20 million wage earners; if we can even double that, you imagine what that can be.

“I see no reason why 49 per­cent of the NNPC cannot be pri­vatized but don’t give it out to ca­bals, friends, relations, kith and kins; let it go public so that even my driver can buy 10 percent of NNPC and there should be a limit to the shares any individu­al or any corporate organisation can buy; there is nothing wrong in that. The NNPC will then be run as NLNG is managed. The NLNG is doing wonderfully well and NNPC was doing very well until we started running it, not the way it should be and if it can be run this way in the past, who says it can be run that same way in future, we must prevent a re­currence.

“Many people thought sell­ing the assets is a bad thing; no, you are re-organising the sec­tor; that is all it is, you’re re-or­ganising the sector.

“You talk of assets that are not doing well, no, if you have to earn money to get yourself out of the situation you are in, you can even sell good assets; you can, the only thing is that how do you sell them?

“What worries many Nige­rians is what has happened be­fore; I wouldn’t be particular but we have said we sold things before and that how we sold them was questionable. This one should not be so because it will be on the stock exchange, you will buy and they will as­sess how much and if the gov­ernment said we are selling 40 percent of NNPC or what else is there to sell? May be, they want to privatise the ports, I don’t know but these are things we can look at and get it right”.

Obasanjo further asked the government to spend less, earn more money and borrow to sal­vage the country from going underground.

The two-term president maintained that for the coun­try to overcome the recession, the government must focus on massive food production and stop the importation of goods that can be produced locally.

Obasanjo said: “If you are spending more than you are earning, there are only three solutions. One, you spend less; two, you earn more; three, you borrow in the hope that you’d pay back.”

The theme of the confer­ence is “Enhancing Revenue Generation and Obtaining Best Value for Money in Ex­penditure.”

The conference was attend­ed by Ogun State Governor Ibi­kunle Amosun, his counterpart from Gombe State, Alhaji Ibra­him Dankwambo, the Minis­ter of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Ade­osun and her counterpart in the Mines and Steel Develop­ment, Dr. Kayode Fayemi; the Senate Committee Chairman on Finance, Senator John Eno, the Chairman, Federal Inter­nal Revenue Service (FIRS), Mr. Babatunde Fowler and the Comptroller-General of the Ni­geria Customs Service (NCS), Col. Hameed Ali (rtd) – among other prominent personalities.