I stand with Atiku on Managing Critical Sectors

By Godwin Obire

The conversation over the sales of non-productive national concerns have always been on but, most times, partisan interests tend to diminish logical reasoning.

It is perhaps for this reason that some persons miss the point when HE Atiku Abubakar says he will sell off the refineries and various other redundant and non-productive national concerns.

But let's look at it dispassionately. We have crude oil and have had about four refineries in the country, yet we have been importing petroleum products for almost 35 years. The refineries only functioned efficiently or effectively in the 70s to mid 80s. Since from the late 80s through the 90s and into the new millennium, we have been importing petroleum products, first in bridging quantity but now in full quantity.

We had the same experience with Nigeria Airways, Nigeria National Shipping Line, NEPA, NITEL, Nigeria Railway Corporation etc etc.

Any way you look at it, their collapse attest to the fact that such businesses are not for government but for private sector businessmen and investors while the duty of government is to provide the enabling environment with policies that support businesses and investors as well as monitoring to protect consumers.

We all saw how it was with NITEL before it was unbundled to give room for private investments in the telecommunication sector by which the ordinary people now have access to telephony.

In the case of the refineries, they are not producing, yet, we allocate funds for their yearly renovation and quarterly turn around maintenance. Isn't that so clearly unreasonable, if not even foolish?

We also saw how, in 2012, the APC mobilised citizens to kick against the removal of subsidy suggested by President Goodluck Jonathan. They said there is nothing like subsidy, that they will bring down fuel pump price and blablu bulabu.

At last, through their administration, not only did the expenditure on subsidy escalate from about N1.5 trillion under Jonathan and the PDP to almost N6 trillion under Buhari and the APC, but the pump price also rose from N87 under the PDP to N145 and now between N250 and N300 per litre under Buhari and the APC. The price of diesel and kerosene are even most untenable. Worse still, most petrol stations are dry, without products.

Clearly, they told us lies, just to win the election, after which we are all suffering.

This is why, I stand with Atiku for telling us the truth from the beginning, that he will sell the refineries and such other non-functioning, non-productive assets to private investors who will manage them with clear sense of business, just like we are celebrating the advent Dangote Refinery today.

Truly, government has to hands off many businesses because it is not its function. Besides the issue of corruption, public servants do not guide the businesses with sense of purpose and commitment.

There has been an attempt to unbundle NEPA but government is still holding on to some aspects.

The behemoth of a National Grid remains wrong. Why would we need to generate electricity and pass it through one long grid before it can get to consumers? We have seen various establishments generate, transmit and distribute electricity to their local communities. It is similarly possible for investors to do the same across states and LGAs without recourse to one National Grid.

As we can see, Nigeria Airways has been dead but our domestic aviation is running through private airlines. The problem they have is now the supply of aviation fuel, and that is because it is still largely controlled by government.

If we had had private investments in the downstream before now, this issue would long have been a thing of the past.

As a people, we should be wiser now to embrace a candidate who understands the issues across various critical sectors and honest and bold enough to tell us the truth of what actions he will take, rather than the lies and propaganda which the APC fed us with and for which we all now suffer.

Atiku is more logical, more reasonable, more matured and more experienced to lead, rescue and reset Nigeria at this time.

Atiku mismanaged the whole economy when he was a vice president. Atiku is part of why Nigeria is poor and hopeless now. We don't want a bunch of criminals parading themselves as leaders, but are just cheap crooks in power.

Vote foe Peter Obi.