Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai says the Nigerian government should sell off its stakes in the nations oil assets owing to recurrent failure in handling the business.
When I say government should get out of oil and gas people shouldn’t think it is crazy. It is not,” Mr El-Rufai said in an interview with Channels TV on Thursday. “There is no reason why the Nigerian government should be in the oil and gas. It has failed. By every measure it has failed.”
Mr El-rufai berated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)’s failure to remit revenue into national coffers, alleging fraud in claims by the national oil company.
“These years, NNPC has not brought N20,000 to the federation account. We are living on taxes. It is PPT, royalties, income tax and VAT that is keeping this country going. Because NNPC claims subsidy has taken all oil revenues,” Mr El-rufai lamented.
The Kaduna governor further said he does not believe NNPC’s claim that subsidy has gulped all oil revenue, adding that “government should sell everything —the oil and gas sector.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has presided over the country’s oil and gas sector, functioning as the Minister for Petroleum Resources since his assumption of power in 2015.
Mr Buhari signed the Petroleum Industry Act into law last year, effectively allowing the NNPC to function as a profit-driving, limited liability company. Nonetheless, leakages that has beleaguered returns from oil earnings abound.
