THE Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai suggested today that the Federal Government should leave the oil and gas industry because it has failed.
The governor spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on the occasion of the seventh KadInvest, an annual event organized by the Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency.
Speaking on this year’s KadInvest’s theme, “Building a Resilient Economy,” El-Rufai said that that anything the government manages ends up failing and pointed out that the industries driving the nation’s economic growth, such as entertainment, telecoms, fintech, and others, operate independently of the government.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), he said, is Nigeria’s biggest problem and should be privatized, adding that nothing has improved since it became commercial in July 2022.
Although NNPC Limited’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, is doing his best, according to the governor of the All Progressives Congress, the company has failed and has no business operating in the sector.
He used the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited as an example, which had no success until the private sector entered the picture and completely transformed the telecoms industry.
“I am giving this example so that when I say government should get out of oil and gas, people should not think it is crazy; it is not. There is no reason why the Nigerian Government should still be in the oil and gas sector. It should just get out, it has failed. By every measure it has failed.
“This year, NNPC has not brought N20,000 to the federation account. We are living on taxes. It is PPTs, royalties, income tax and VAT that is keeping this country going because NNPC claims that subsidy has taken all the oil revenues. I don’t believe it,” El-Rufai noted.
The governor further emphasized that in order for the nation to address the hydra-headed and long-standing challenges of the sector, the Federal Government should exit the power sector and privatize it.
“So, the government should sell everything in oil and gas sector…The government should get out of everything that is left of electricity, leave it to the private sector, create the environment, the money will come. We did it in the telecoms sector,” he said.
Asked about the commercialisation of the NNPC, he said, “Nothing has changed, it’s just a change in name with limited at the end.
“Nothing has changed, they are still taking our money, declaring profit that we don’t see the dividends.”
