Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has said he will sell the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and retain just 10 per cent of the company for the Federal Government.
Atiku said this in an interview with The African Report’, a monthly publication.
The former vice president who presided over the National Council on Privatisation under President Olusegun Obasanjo, said the NNPC was supposed to have become more profitable by now.
On whether he would sell the NNPC and keep 10 per cent shares for the government, he said, “Yes, I would want to go ahead. There is no doubt about that. The government should have a very minor shareholding. Nigeria is in dire need of funds to develop its infrastructure and other sectors of the economy.”
Atiku, who is no regarded as the main presidential challenger to incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, said Nigeria ought to have been producing far more than two million barrels of oil per day.
Speaking further on the privatisation of the national oil company, he said, “Without a stable regulatory framework, the oil and gas companies will find it difficult to invest more in Nigeria.
“At the time, we pushed for the passage of the new law. We expected that Nigeria would be able to export up to four million barrels per day but here we are still at less than two million barrels per day.”
