Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the upcoming presidential election, has explained why he wants to privatize Nigeria’s refineries.
According to him, privatization would help get the comatose but money-guzzling refiners into productive hands and ultimately ensure that Nigeria becomes a chemical refining hub.
The politician disclosed this on Tuesday at the Lagos Business School Alumni Day 2022.
Reason for privatisation: Atiku argued that the private sector suffers when it is not productive. Therefore, the one way to kickstart its productivity is by privatizing assets that aren’t productive.
- “I will continue with privatising aspects of Nigeria’s Oil and gas sector up to now, moribund refineries are not functioning and yet we are spending money on them. I would rather privatise them ( Kaduna, Warri, Port Harcourt) and we have been spending money without any production.”
He noted that if Nigeria had privatised the refineries, they would have been producing today as no private sector would buy a refinery and be spending money on it whilst allowing it to be unproductive.
- “I will privatise them, so that Nigeria can be a refinery hub of West Africa, by the time the 3 government-owned refineries are functioning and Aliko’s Refinery ( Dangote), there would be 4 refineries.”
In case you missed it: Recall that the Federal Government recently spent the sum of $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery, which they say will commence operations soon.
In April 2021, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited signed a contract with Tecnimont SpA, a subsidiary of Maire Tecnimont, for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery.
In other news: Atiku also spoke about the need for a constitutional review and restructuring. He emphasised that for Nigeria to remain one in the long run, then there is an urgent need to review the constitution.
- “Because our constitution is a product of the military administration, I want to state clearly, that I support the review of constitutional arrangements to devolve more power and components for regions, states, and local governments.”