A former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and deposed Emir of Kano, Lamido Sanusi, on Saturday gave reasons why the Federal Government should disband the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
According to The PUNCH, Sanusi, who spoke at the 7th edition of the Kaduna Investment Summit (KADinvest 7.0) organised by the Kaduna Investment Promotion Agency said that the national oil company is a money pit and not a “cash cow”.
While calling for the disbandment of NNPC, Sanusi said that the body has failed to live up to the expectations of Nigerians.
He also noted that the four refineries in the nation are still in a moribund state.
“NNPC is a money pit instead of a cash cow; it should be unbundled and disbanded. More can be had from simply levying royalties and CIT on private players following models like Petronas and Petrobras.
“Beyond the challenging global context, Nigeria has problems entirely of its own making where oil revenues which were once the lifeblood of the Federal Government, have been in secular decline for over a decade. This has been happening regardless of the oil price environment,” he stated.
Sanusi also enjoined State governors to seek independent ways of generating revenue for themselves instead of primarily depending on the Federal Government’s monthly allocations.
“Instead of pushing for a revised revenue sharing formula, they need to push
for new and independent powers of taxation.
He commended the successful implementation of the Treasury Single Account, saying that “this is an area where Kaduna, in particular, has shown leadership.”
“Research by BudgIT shows that it is the only state to have met the World Bank State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability scoring criteria for two years in a row. This includes running a function TSA that covers more than 80 per cent of revenues,” he added.
