Why I Say Govt Should Leave Oil, Gas To Private Investors – Gov El-Rufai

Kaduna state Governor Nasir El-Rufai has declared that the Federal Government should leave the oil and gas industry to the private sector because it has failed

On the occasion of the seventh KadInvest, an annual event organised by the Kaduna State Investment Promotion Agency, El-Rufai appeared on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, on Thursday, October 13.

Speaking on this year’s KadInvest’s theme, “Building a Resilient Economy,” El-Rufai claimed that anything the government manages ends up failing and pointed out that the industries driving the nation’s economic growth, such as entertainment, telecoms, fintech, and others, operate independently of the government.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, he added, is Nigeria’s biggest problem and should be privatised, adding that nothing has improved since it became commercial in July 2022.

He cited an example of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited which achieved nothing until the private sector came in and revolutionalised the telecoms business.

“I am giving this example so that when I say the government should get out of oil and gas, people should not think it is crazy; it is not. There is no reason why the Nigerian Government should still be in the oil and gas sector. It should just get out, it has failed. By every measure, it has failed.

“This year, NNPC has not brought N20,000 to the federation account. We are living on taxes. It is PPTs, royalties, income tax, and VAT that are keeping this country going because NNPC claims that subsidy has taken all the oil revenues. I don’t believe it,” El-Rufai noted.

The governor further argued that the Federal Government should get out of the power sector and privatise it for the country to overcome the hydra-headed and decades-long challenges of the sector.

“So, the government should sell everything in the oil and gas sector…The government should get out of everything that is left of electricity, leave it to the private sector, and create the environment, and the money will come. We did it in the telecoms sector,” he said.