Mallam Mohammed Ibrahim Biu, a delegate to the ongoing National Conference representing North-East geopolitical zone from Borno State, has called on the federal government to revoke all suspiciously privatized assets of the government to pave the way for the correct assessment of such assets. In this interaction with IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, he lamented that most viable asserts of the government has been cheaply sold always to the highest bidder at the determinet of the nation. He speaks on other sundry issues. Excerpts:
What is your assessment on the report of the Confab Committee on Trade and Investment?
Well,so far so good, the report if implemented will show far- reaching commendations that will improve the economy that will also open up windows for investments into the country, but most importantly I think delegates have expressed their concern with the issue of privatization. We felt that the way the privatization process has been going on apparently most of the privatized companies -80 percent of them -have even collapsed. The companies were even doing better before they were privatized; so this issue is of serious concern to a lot of the delegates. And the general opinion is that government should revisit such processes again to see where Nigerians can really benefit from this exercise, because such corporations as Nicon Insurance had assets worth billions of Naira both in Nigeria and outside, and the price that was put on it was less than 10 percent of the value of the asset it had. The company was sold to a Nigerian and some people say that if you go to the company now you will marvel at what you will see. It is a sorry sight. In fact a lot of people have been out of job and the company has eventually collapsed. The situation is of serious concern to delegates of this confab.
Nigerians are worried that the Obasanjo administration sold most valuable government assets and it is difficult to retrieve such property from the buyers. Now that this conference is revisiting the way and manner our national heritages were sold, what would be your advice on this?
This is why we are saying that the process was faulty and if the process was faulty then you have to arrest the situation. That means it is either you revisit the privatization exercise that took place or the ones that you can retrieve, you make sure there is due diligence and due process in the process so that whoever is buying will know exactly what he is buying. It is not that you make things so rosy and at the end of the day after the buyer has bought it then you find out that he comes back with complaints. For instance, look at what we are hearing of NEPA which was sold last year to private investors. Today they have started coming up with complaints that they didn’t envisage the kind of problem they are seeing today. This is the kind of things we should avoid, otherwise we will continue to dispose of national assets at peanuts while at the same time depriving Nigerians of the benefits of such national assets.
As a delegate would you call for the revocation of such assets?
You see, the revocation of such assets wouldn’t be of much benefit to us; the only option left is to revisit such processes and correct the process but if you say you revoke it, already you have lost so much from the privatization of the asset.