Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of Nigerian opposition party, PDP, has continued to criticise the policies of the Godwin Emefiele-led central bank, in a signal that Emefiele, whose tenure expires this June, could fail to get a second term if 72-year old Atiku wins at the February polls.
Atiku has not been shy to criticise the central bank’s policy on foreign exchange and has promised to abolish the current multiple exchange rate policy. He says it deters foreign direct investment and must give way if he is to achieve his promise to deliver a $1 trillion economy by 2023.
Atiku hopes to mount a strong challenge on incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari as Nigerians vote for their next leader next month. Atiku has enjoyed wide support from the business community over his perceived pro market leaning.
Atiku also reiterated his commitment to privatise the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) even if vested interests in the opaque state-owned oil company try to take his life.
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“I swear, I will privatise NNPC even if they kill me,” Atiku, who called the state oil company a “Mafia” said at meeting with business leaders, Wednesday.
President Muhammadu Buhari had promised to break up the NNPC in 2015 and when the oil company published its first accounts in a decade eight months after Buhari’s victory at the election, progress was being made under the former military dictator who oversaw the birth of NNPC in the 1970s.
It was a big step for an entity that had become notorious for inefficiency and mismanagement, however broader plans to unbundle the oil company and privatise a part of it has stalled.
Failure to privatise the state oil firm could prove a strong weapon to be used by Atiku against Buhari when both face-off at the Presidential debate this weekend.
Atiku also said he will reduce the size of the federal government completely if elected President at the February polls.
“I support restructuring and we will liberalize several sectors of the economy,” Atiku said.
