Ebun Francis|
Bismarck Rewane, the chief executive of Financial Derivative, on Monday said that the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Atiku Abubakar, must tell Nigerians, who he wants to sell the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to as the country prepares for the 2019 election.
Atiku had repeatedly said he will sell the national oil giant if elected president but Rewane said that whereas the idea is noble, the country needs to be saved from being plunged into chronic capitalism.
Rewane said, “I agree that he (Atiku) should privatise, but selling to who?”.
“You must not just say you are going to sell, you must tell us how, and to who?
“If you are going to have a voucher system like they have in India, where everybody in the public will have a voucher, then you can sell it.
“It becomes rather than government owned, it becomes Nigerian privately-owned, and part of it you want to internationalise like what Saudi Arabia is doing.
“But you see, it is a noble idea, but it stops short of the specifics, tell us who and who, and how you are going to ensure that it is not sold to your own cronies.
“One of the big risks of privatisation is the Russian model, where you have chronic capitalism. If you have businessmen, who are in government like Donald Trump, you want to make sure that both the government and the people are protected from conflicts of interest,” Rewane told Channels Television.