The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), on Monday urged the Federal Government<\/p>\n
to drop the plan to sell-off major national assets to tackle the nation\u2019s
\neconomic recession.<\/p>\n
The ACF said in a statement issued in Kaduna by Muhammad Ibrahim, its
\nNational Publicity Secretary, that selling strategic, viable national
\nassets to take the economy out of recession was inappropriate.<\/p>\n
ACF also condemned the call by some prominent politicians and businessmen
\non the Federal Government to consider selling the national assets to get
\nthe country out of recession.<\/p>\n
\u201cPast privatisation exercise did not yield the desired result in terms of
\njudicious use of proceeds by the government or management practices of the
\nassets by the new owners.<\/p>\n
\u201cACF considers it unwise for the Federal Government to contemplate selling
\noff major national assets like the Oil refineries, Federal Airports, NLNG.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can be used as security against needed funds to boost the economy. \u201c<\/p>\n
According to the forum, the amount to be realised is not worth the
\nexercise, adding that the recession is temporary.<\/p>\n
ACF noted that national assets; including the Nigeria Airways, National
\nShipping Line, Ajaokuta Steel Company, NITEL, NEPA, sold to selected
\nNigerians and their foreign collaborators had not added value to the
\neconomy.<\/p>\n
It added that most of the sold assets ended up comatose, adding that \u201cthe
\nones that survived, their service delivery cannot be said to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ACF said the government should consider the advice of the Revenue
\nMobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission. The News Agency of Nigeria
\n(NAN) recalls that the commission had said that \u201cNigeria\u2019s assets like the
\nNLNG and other strategic national resources should not be sold to meet
\nshort term financial obligation.<\/p>\n
\u201c ACF suggested that unnecessary allowances of public officers and
\noverhead cost that formed over 40 per cent of the annual national budget
\nshould be converted to capital allocation to boost the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the time for national sacrifice in order to bequeath an enduring
\nlegacy to the next generation. Positive change usually comes with painful
\nnecessary sacrifice.<\/p>\n
\u201cACF, however, supports some of the measures proposed by the National
\nEconomic Council but seriously objects to the selling of strategic
\nnational assets just to get out of a temporary economic recession.<\/p>\n
\u201cACF calls upon our prominent businessmen and women to invest their
\nresources in the oil and gas industry, building of airports that will
\ncompete favourably with the public ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will equally boost the economy through employment and infrastructure
\ndevelopment.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2019Let us put on our thinking cap and do the needful, rather than taking
\nshort term measures,\u201c ACF added in the statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), on Monday urged the Federal Government to drop the plan to sell-off major national assets to tackle the nation\u2019s economic recession. The ACF said in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n