Kadu State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, on Monday noted that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, must be scrapped before it destroys the country.
He insisted that “NNPC must die!”
The Governor, who made this assertion while speaking at the 7th Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series, lambasted the state oil company, stressing that he was optimistic that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would dissolve the entity.
The ex-FCT Minister went on to call for the setting up of another national oil firm as he argued that the present NNPC would kill Nigeria if it is allowed to continue running as the country’s oil firm.
“If you don’t kill NNPC, it will kill Nigeria,” El-Rufai insisted.
“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.
“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”, he stated.
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