Atiku Reiterates Call For Privatisation Of NNPC, Refineries

A former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has again called on the Federal Government to sell off the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its refineries.
Abubakar repeated the call as part of his recommendations for defusing Nigeria’s high unemployment time bomb.
His statement was in reaction to a report from Bloomberg Business on Saturday that Nigeria will soon have the highest unemployment rate on Earth, with an over 33 percent rate.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had said Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose to 33.3 per cent in the final quarter of last year, indicating that 23.2 million or one in three working age Nigerians have no jobs or trade. This is the highest unemployment rate in Nigeria in at least 13 years and the second-highest in the world.
In his statement yesterday, Atiku said the Bloomberg report had proven him right on the state of the economy.
“I have never felt so bad at being proven right, as I am by the report from Bloomberg Business on Saturday, March 27, 2021 that Nigeria is to emerge as the nation with the highest unemployment rate on Earth, at just over 33%.
“We warned about this, but repeated warnings by myself and other patriots were scorned. And now this.
“How did Nigeria get here? We got here by abandoning the people-centred leadership and free trade and deregulatory policies of the Obasanjo years (which saw us maintain an almost single digit unemployment rate), and implementing discredited command and control policies that have led to massive capital flight from Nigeria.
“And even with the paucity of funds, we continue to ramp up government involvement in sectors that ought to be left to the private sector, with the latest being the ill advised $1.5 billion so called rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery that has failed to turn a profit for years.”
According to him, the government must realise that the insecurity Nigeria is facing is the result of youth unemployment.
“Idleness is the worst feature of unemployment because it channels the energy of our youth away from production, and towards destruction, and that is why Nigeria is now the third most terrorised nation on Earth,” he said.
The Peoples Democratic Party leader suggested that a stipend should be given to every family monthly to cater for academic needs of their wards.
“In 2020, I recommended that to immediately and drastically bring down youth unemployment, every family in Nigeria with at least one school age child, and earning less than $800 per annum should receive a monthly stipend of 5000 Naira from the government via their BVN and NIN on the condition that they verifiably keep their children in school.
“My recommendation still stands, and stands even stronger now that we have crossed the rubicon in youth unemployment.
“If we can get the 13.5 million out of school Nigerian children into school, we will turn the corner in one generation. If we do not do this, then the floodgates of unemployment will be further opened next year, and in the years to come.”