Buhari asked to replace NNPC management with private sector heads

President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to sack the management team of the newly-registered Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Limited).

The Conference Of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) advised him to replace them with prudent private sector heads to save the country’s economy.

Secretary-General, Willy Ezugwu warned that it would be impossible for Nigeria to continue with the subsidy regime that mainly serves the interest of individuals.

CNPP reacted to the claims by NNPC Limited that Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) will cost consumers N462 per litre without the federal government’s subsidy.

A statement by Ezugwu lamented that despite the huge assets available to NNPC, both as a public corporation and now commercial company, Nigeria has never felt a positive impact.

It linked the situation to “endemic corruption in the oil industry, especially the high level looting of the treasury through scams like fuel subsidy payments and consistent ineffective turn around maintenance of outdated Nigerian refineries”.

CNPP said maintenance of the four refineries has remained a perpetual conduit pipe deployed by virtually every management team under successive administrations “to siphon the country’s commonwealth.

“Till date, despite several billions of dollars invested in the turn around maintenance of the Nigerian refineries, none of them has ever worked optimally.

“Rather than pursue the construction of new refineries, the NNPC management will conveniently opt for endless renovation of the old refineries for personal economic gains.”

Ezugwu wondered why the NNPC has continued on the same path of another turn around maintenance projects at moribund refineries rather than building new ones.

The scribe said the only visible reason for the insistence on revamping the old refineries is that it allows “unfettered access to the country’s national treasury for personal corrupt enrichment”.

The statement warned that the nation cannot afford to continue to maintain old refineries and endure “the endless looting by NNPC officials in the name of fuel subsidy”,

Nigeria is unarguably the only oil producing country not benefiting from the current high prices of crude oil in the international market, it noted.

Insisting that private sector chiefs should be appointed to handle the NNPC, the CNPP added that “No sane person does a thing in the same way and expects a different result”.