By Damilola Shittu
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has explained why the Federal Government of Nigeria should not be in the oil and gas sector of the country’s economy.
El-Rufai said whatever the government manages turns out bad, and the sectors that are doing well, like entertainment, telecoms, fintech and others, have no government involvement.
The Governor stated this while speaking at the seventh edition of KadInvest, an annual event organized by the Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency.
He further stated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) is Nigeria’s biggest problem and should be privatized, Channels Television reports.
El-Rufai said; “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.
“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.
“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.”
