Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently reform the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) if he is serious about taking the country out of recession.
Obasanjo, who also carpeted President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, business mogul, Aliko Dangote and other proponents of the sale of national assets, maintained that the NNPC reform is best done to lift the economy out of recession and create wealth for Nigerians.
Instead of putting the national heritage up for sale, he said the government should reform the NNPC, adding that selling of national assets and calls for it are wrong.
The former president spoke when the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, paid him a courtesy visit in his Presidential Hilltop, Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital yesterday.
He, however, declared during Baru’s visit that he did not “understand this talk of selling of national assets.” He used the GMD’s visit to call for the urgent reform of the business operations model of the NNPC by the Muhammadu Buhari-led government, maintaining that this is best done to lift the economy out of recession.
“What I do understand is reform. I believe organisations like the NNPC should be reformed. I don’t understand this talk of selling of national assets. Selling of national assets is wrong. But reform is what I think should be done so that we can run the business of NNPC the way it should be run,” he said.
“If there is any organisation that can help us quickly get out of recession, it is NNPC. If you work hard, you can get around the situation. I want to encourage you and hope that the little difference we have started seeing will continue,” he added.
