THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, yesterday faulted Kaduna State Governor Nasir, El-Rufai’s claim that the Federal Government has failed in the oil and gas business and should get out of the sector. It described his statement as confusing and contradictory.
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State had spoken on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, that whatever the government managed turned out bad.
According to El Rufai “nothing had changed with the commercialisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company in July 2022,” adding that “NNPC was Nigeria’s biggest problem and should be privatised.”
El-Rufai maintained that though the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, was trying his best, the company had failed and had no business being in the sector.
He cited the example of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, which achieved nothing until the private sector came in and revolutionalised the telecoms sector.
“I am giving this example so that when I say government should get out of oil and gas, people should not think it is crazy; it is not.
”There is no reason the Nigerian government should still be in the oil and gas sector. It should just get out, it has failed. By every measure it has failed.
“This year, NNPC has not brought N20,000 to the federation account. We are living on taxes. It is PPTs, royalties, income tax and VAT that is keeping this country going because NNPC claims that subsidy has taken all the oil revenues. I don’t believe it,” the governor said.
He argued further that the Federal Government should get out of the power sector and privatise it for the country to overcome the hydra-headed and decades-long challenges of the sector.
“So, the government should sell everything in oil and gas sector. The government should get out of everything that is left of electricity, leave it to the private sector, create the environment, the money will come. We did it in the telecoms sector,” he said.
On the commercialisation of the NNPC, he said: “Nothing has changed, it’s just a change in name with limited at the end.
“Nothing has changed, they are still taking our money, declaring profit that we don’t see the dividends.”
El-Rufai’s statements confusing, contradictory, says NNPCL
The Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPCL, Mr. Garba Deen Muhammad, said the governor got his facts wrong.
He explained that the governor’s statements were contradictory and surprising because the facts were there for everyone to see.
He said it was not true that NNPCL has not been remitting to FAAC, insisting that the revenue from PPT was from the oil industry.
“He said NNPCL has not been making remittance to FAAC and yet in the same breath, he said it is income from PPT, royalty and income tax that is keeping this country.
“The confusion is where do the PPT, royalty and income tax come from? The PPT is the petroleum profit tax, have you seen anybody pay profit tax without making profit? Or pay Royalty without production?
“These things don’t just fall from the sky. These payments are possible because somebody is working hard to make it possible”, he added.
