₦airaland Forum



How the Atiku privatization plan benefits you

By Kunle Oshobi

During the presidential campaign rally of the PDP held recently in Lagos,

the front runner and presidential candidate of the PDP Alhaji Atiku

Abubakar reiterated that if he was elected into office, he will privatize all the

refineries and make the proceeds of the sales available to fund small and

medium scale enterprises as part of his plans to reinvigorate the Nigerian

economy. With this move, he will be able to turn assets that have become

liabilities and drainpipes on the resources of the country into a pool of funds

that will be available to uplift millions of Nigerians out of poverty.

As laudable as the privatization program is, a lot of Nigerians have

developed misgivings about it due to politically inspired misinformation and

deliberate distortion of facts by those who benefit from the rot in these

government-owned enterprises.

The truth is that “government has no business in doing business” and the

government’s role is primarily to take care of the security and welfare of the

citizens. However, governments all over the world venture into business

enterprises for strategic reasons or when certain investments are needed

and the private sector doesn’t have the capacity to undertake such

investments as was the case with Nigeria when the government built the

refineries and many other government-owned enterprises.

As a result of the then weak capacity of our private sector, the federal

government justifiably invested over $100 billion in business enterprises

between 1970 and 1999. However, owing to the fact that the government is

not configured to run business enterprises, most of these enterprises had

been run aground before 1999 and had become a major drainpipe on the

resources of the federal government. According to the erstwhile Director

General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) that was put in charge of

the privatization program Mallam Nasiru El Rufai, Nigeria was spending

(wasting) over N265 billion per annum to supplement none productive

public enterprises.

With the sale of the distressed companies, not only was the government

able to save billions of Naira being used to support these none productive companies, the government was able to generate revenues from the asset

sales which were put into more productive use for the benefit of Nigerians.

At the tail end of the Obasanjo administration in 2007, the government was

able to sell the refineries which for years had been operating far below their

installed capacity to a consortium of private investors led by Alhaji Aliko

Dangote who had committed to injecting the much-needed funds and

managerial competencies needed to turn around the fortunes of the

refineries. However, the privatization exercise was short-lived as hawks in

the succeeding Yar’adua administration who felt that they would be losing a

major source of sleaze if the company was left in private hands were able

to convince the president to reverse the sale of the refineries.

The Yar’adua administration then promised to revamp the refineries and

get them to start producing at full capacity within a couple of years. Sadly,

this was never to happen as the output of the refineries that were then

between 40 and 60% installed capacity dwindled regressively until a few

years ago when they finally stopped production even after government had

wasted billions of dollars on “Turn Around Maintenance” exercises in futile

attempts to revamp the refineries. Consequently, we now have to depend

on imported products for 100% of our fuel needs. For how long do we

continue to use good money to chase after bad investments?

To make matters worse, the current administration now spends over N100

billion a year to maintain the refineries that are not producing any fuel.

Realistically speaking, they have become a drainpipe to the country’s

resources because instead of being assets generating income and adding

value, they have become liabilities through which the government is losing

hundreds of billions of Naira every year.

With the Atiku plan to privatize the refineries and other rundown public

enterprises, not only will we save Nigeria billions of dollars used in

sustaining these liabilities, the government will be unlocking the value in

them by allowing the private sector that is more equipped to run these

enterprises to take over them, increase the productivity in the economy and

create more jobs for the people while government raises billions of dollars

from the sale of these enterprises.

By making these funds available to support the private sector along with a

number of other proposed policy initiatives of the Atiku plan, the Atiku administration will be able to create 3 million jobs for Nigerians annually

while lifting 10 million Nigerians out of poverty every year into the bargain.

This will also have a positive multiplier effect on those of us who are not

unemployed or in the poverty trap as the increased economic activity from

the millions of Nigerians now getting employed and pulled out of poverty

will mean more patronage for our various businesses and our employers,

and more tax revenues for government to pay civil servants even better

wages.

The trick is to get our assets to start working for us while turning our

liabilities into resources. We can thus empower small and medium-scale

enterprises and increase productivity within the economy for the benefit of

all. These were part of the policies implemented by the Atiku-led National

Economic Council which resulted in Nigeria becoming the fastest-growing

economy in Africa during the Obasanjo administration.

Fortunately, the man who was in charge of our economy during our golden

years of economic growth is presenting himself to us and asking that we

give him the opportunity to return us to the days of growth and prosperity

for all. Let us follow the man who knows the way.

Kunle Oshobi

Spokesperson

Atiku / Okowa Campaign Organization

It's not about promises.
The issue is who can Nigerians trust.
Even PDP's integrity group can not trust Atiku

Naira20:
It's not about promises.
The issue is who can Nigerians trust.
Even PDP's integrity group can not trust Atiku

The article is not about promises but about Atiku's phenomenal track record and the huge success of the privatization program.