Senators disagree with Saraki over sale of national assets

The Senate on Wednesday commenced debate on the way out of the current economic recession, even as senators disagreed sharply with Senate President Bukola Saraki, who called for sale of national assets.

The calls for the sale of national assets to get the country out of recession, had earlier been canvassed by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

The Senate President who rolled out the measures in his welcome speech to senators from thier two-month recess on Tuesday, called for the sale of Federal Government shares in the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), concession of major/regional airports and refineries, sale of government stake in financial institutions like Africa Finance Corporation as some of the solutions to get Nigeria out of the economic crisis.

But in his submission, George Akume (APC, Benue North West), alleged that proponents of the sale of national assets are the same people who will buy them.

“I am worried because people who are telling us to sell these assets are people who have big pockets. Our assets must remain with us”, he submitted in his debate.

Some national assets that have been sold in the past to private individuals include: NITEL, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), NICON Insurance, Federal Government shares in Transcorp Hilton among others.

Last week, the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, had disclosed that the country will soon commence the sale of about 15 percent of its oil assets held by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is expected to yield an inflow of $10 billion to the country.

This, he added, is part of efforts to reflate the nation’s economy, pointing out that a team of consultants had been commissioned to carry out a study on the proposed sale.

But in his submission, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, called for caution in the sale of national assets, as according to him, doing so would be unfair to the next generation.

He said: “If we must sell, we have to sell the non-performing assets so that people can turn them around and create employment”.

He asked the Federal Government to plunge the N3trillion recovered from the Treasury Single Accoint (TSA), $20million reportedly returned by former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke and billions of naira returned from looters back to the nation to reflate the economy.

He added: “I also believe that since oil is one of our major stay we need to begin negotiation in terms of engagement with our oil majors, a situation where the production cost in Nigeria is between $18 to $24 is unacceptable and it is not happening anywhere in the world. If we meet with this people and negotiate it further down it means we are going to free enough money that will come to the Federal Government to now help us to deal with the issue of recession. This is the time to call our oil majors and renegotiate the terms of our engagement with them if we have to get money to deal with this issue”.

While Ekweremadu charged President Muhammadu Buhari to reshuffle his cabinet, describing Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun and her counterpart in Budget and National Planning Udoma Udoma as ‘square pegs in round holes’, Dino Melaye insisted on the sack of ‘incompetent ministers’.

However, in his submission Shehu Sani said removing the ministers would not solve the economic crisis, pointing out that countries dependent on crude oil revenue are also facing the same economic woes.

Besides Nigeria, other oil-exporting countries in recession include: Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Canada.

Other lawmakers tasked the Federal Government to dialogue with militants in the Niger Delta with a view to halting attacks on oil installations, restructuring of the country, reduction of interest rate, diversification of the economy, empowering small and medium enterprises, review of the revenue sharing formula.