National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), if elected president on February
23.
Mr Abubakar spoke at a town hall meeting with ward, local government and
state party leaders in the state at the Kaduna Trade Fair Complex.
He said that the NNPC had failed to serve the purpose for which it was
established in 1977.
According to him, selling-off the corporation and all the three refineries
is the best option for the country, likening it to the sale of Nigerian
Telecommunication Limited (NITEL).
Mr Abubakar said Nigeria is among the biggest producers of crude, but
lamented that the country still imports refined products for local
consumption at exorbitant prices to the detriment of the common man.
He said if elected president, he would deregulate the NNPC and sell it to
Nigerians. the way Mr Obasanjo sold NITEL.
However, he did not mention that the sale of NITEL was disastrously done
by the administration, of which he was a part and chairman of the Bureau
of Public Enterprises, which handled the sale.
Under Mr Obasanjo, NITEL went through several botched sales and management
turnaround contracts. First, 51 per cent of the shares were sold to a
group of investors under the trading name of Investors International
London limited.
The sale was cancelled after the investors failed to pay. Then in 2003,
the government approved a management turnaround contract with a firm
called Pentascope. The contract was cancelled in 2005 after it became
clear Pentascope did not have the adequate resources to run NITEL. In
2005, the government again offered NITEL to Orascom. This failed again,
leading the government to sell it to a subsidiary of Transcorp in 2007.
The sale was revoked in 2009. In 2014, the firm was sold to NATCOM, a
group of investors led by Tunde Ayeni. Mr Ayeni since then has been
running it as NTEL.
Mr Abubakar, also former vice president, urged the people of Kaduna State
to massively vote for the PDP, promising to allocate 40 per cent
appointments to the youth to address the rising unemployment and
restiveness.
He said that his government if elected, would make education a priority by
providing scholarships to all deserving youth and women in the country.
Mr Abubakar also promised to allocate 30 per cent of appointments to
women, adding that, he would provide adequate funds through the Small and
Medium Enterprise Agency to empower women and the youth.
He said that his leadership would address what he described as alarming
insecurity, with killings of innocent Nigerians across all the
geopolitical regions.
Mr Abubakar appealed to the electorate to vote the PDP into political
offices in the state for the betterment of the people.
He said he would allocate more resources to the states and local
government areas for faster development across the country.
The National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, and Speaker of the House
of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, urged the Kaduna State party leaders to
work tirelessly to ensure the success of the party at the Feb 23 and March
9 general elections.
The governorship candidate of the party, Isah Ashiru, said the party would
bring development at all levels to the state if voted into power.
Mr Ashiru said his administration would reduce poverty to the minimum and
create employment opportunities for the youth and women as well as persons
with disabilities.
Mr Ashiru appealed to the people come out en masse and vote for the party
and ensure their votes count.
He urged the youth to avoid violence during and after the polls.
The chairman of the party in the state, Felix Hyat, spoke in the same vein.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that another former vice
president, Namadi Sambo; former national chairman of the party, Ahmed
Makarfi; former governors Ramalan Yero of Kaduna and Ibrahim Shema of
Katsina were among top party leaders that attended the event.
(NAN)