“NNPC (Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation) must die!” were the stern words of the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday in Abuja.
A visibly angry El-Rufai, while speaking at the 7th Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series, lambasted the national oil firm, stressing that he was hopeful that the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would kill the corporation.
The Kaduna State governor called for the setting up of another national oil firm as he argued that the present NNPC would kill Nigeria if it is allowed to continue running as the country’s oil firm.
“If you don’t kill NNPC, it will kill Nigeria,” El-Rufai said.
Meanwhile, former Chairman of National Union Of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) NAHCO, MMIA, Ikeja chapter, Comrade Sunday Akintunde has blamed the persistent fuel scarcity in the country on the inefficiency of NNPC.
He made this known recently during a chat with newsmen in Lagos while commenting on the state of the nation.
Akintunde said the new government must completely overhaul the oil sector and get rid of the cabal from the system before the country can have stable fuel supply.
“In addition to this all our refineries must start working at full capacity and the private sector must be encouraged to establish more refineries for us to consume locally and export the refined products to create more jobs and boost our economy.
“The recent probing of NNPC and federation accounts must be conclusive and all those involved must be brought to book and prosecuted. We should have institutional framework that will strengthen our judicial system on the fight against corruption and re-organization of all our anti-graft agencies to effectively work in line with our constitution and policy drive of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.
The former APC aspirant to the Lagos State House of Assembly, Agege Constituency 01, also said that the party’s position on the choice of principal officers of the 8th Senate and House of Representatives will definitely prevail at the end of the day because party supremacy is the solution to the crisis.
“The issue of winner takes all should be jettisoned by National Assembly gladiators. It must be win-win situation so that both Senators and Reps will relieve themselves from undue pressure and crisis,” he said.
Akintunde described the bailout by President Muhammadu Buhari as a welcome development because it has saved the nation an unnecessary embarrassment created by the previous PDP government.
Speaking on the recent appointments made by the presidency, Akintunde said: “I have not seen anything wrong in the appointments made by President Buhari so far in my own opinion as a patriotic citizen since we have a lot of appointments that are still coming up that will go round all the six geo-political zones.”
According to him, “we need to be patient and patriotic to give our total support to the present administration to succeed in all ramifications. It is not about appointments but our support, contribution and commitment for a new Nigeria. We are supposed to have surpassed the era of personal interest for us to have national interest at heart. In as much all those appointed are duly qualified for the post based on merit, why the noise? Are they not Nigerians?”
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