Former
President Olusegun Obasanjo says he regrets not privatizing the Nigeria
National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, while in office.
Obasanjo
said this at the opening of a two-day Maritime Stakeholders’ Conference in
Lagos yesterday May 16th.
According
to Obasanjo, the private sector have over the years shown to be very profitable
in whatever project the Federal government gets them involved in ..
"NNPC
is supposed to be doing well like Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG). The
involvement of the private sector will ensure growth. The NLNG is making money
for the government because of the involvement of the private sector. A general
once left this country with two ships. He later came back with no
accountability. That cannot happen in the private sector."he said Obasanjo
said while he was Head of State, he bought a total of 19 ships for the
petroleum sector but sadly, none of them can be accounted for now. According to
him, one of the ships was sold off as scrab for $500, 000 and that the Federal
government later bought the same ship for $2 million. It was repaired for
$1million. He said he was informed that the same ship was later seized for not
being sea worthy. " We were asked to pay $2 million. I told them to keep
the ship. It was later released (without any payment)” he said.
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