The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El Rufai, has called for the scrapping of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its replacement with a new agency to ensure transparency and accountability in the oil and gas sector.
El-Rufia made the call as guest speaker at the 7th Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture series on Monday in Abuja entitled “Nigeria And The Oil Fortune.’’
He said “we should replace the NNPC with a brand new organisation fit for commercialised and corporatised national oil company and new industry regulators.
“This new national oil company should be capitalised once and for all, and then freed to fend for itself like other national oil companies do, seeking its financing independently from the financial markets and paying due taxes and royalties.
“The corruption and nonchalance that hobbled the NNPC are symptoms that its best days are over.
“We should give it a deserved funeral so that a new institution, active and nimble, can promptly replace it.’’
According to him, NNPC’s subsidiaries and associated companies can be reviewed, restructured and privatised or commercialised as appropriate consistent with national interest and objectives.
He added that government should review the Joint Venture strategy with the governing principle being to shift the financing and operational risks to the markets and operators respectively.
El-Rufaí said government should avoid owing the oil companies, and should proactively review the terms and implementation of the Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and concentrate on collecting the royalties and taxes due to it.
“No one is better qualified to do this than the person that formed the NNPC through the merger of the Nigerian National Oil Corporation and the Ministry of Petroleum in 1977, President Muhammadu Buhari himself.
“No one can appreciate the gap between the vision of NNPC’s founding fathers, the beautiful baby of 1977 and the 38-year-old monster it has become than President Buhari.
“Something fundamentally decisive must be done to tame this monster and we must have the political will to make all oil industry transactions transparent.’’
The governor said there should be clear rules and processes for licencing, concessioning, procurement and contracting, noting that the existing systems tend to be corrupt.
He said the President had already taken the commendable step of directing that all revenues be remitted either to the Federation Account or the consolidated revenue fund as required by sections 80 and 162 of the Constitution.
He added that the President was clear that oil industry revenues would no longer be treated as some slush fund of the Federal Government.
