The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has hailed the Federal Government’s decision to turn the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation into a limited liability company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
The former Vice President said the action was part of his proposal in 2018 to overhaul the petroleum industry in order to gain more profit and be cost-effective.
The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Tuesday, unveiled the new NNPC logo, with the motto: “Energy Today, Energy Tomorrow.”
The president unveiled the new corporate look at an event hosted by the NNPC Limited in Abuja.
The new company will be a commercial oil company independent of the government, but state bodies will remain shareholders, and will be checked every year.
He noted that before the unveiling of the company, the All Progressives Congress-led government had slandered his patriotic views. But today, the same government had bought into his vision by taking a step toward his proposal.
Atiku was commenting on the unveiling of the NNPC via a post on Wednesday, expressing his happiness with the initiative.
“I had in 2018 made public my plans to reform the NNPC to make it more profitable, transparent, and efficient. The APC-led government denigrated me for my patriotic vision. But today, I am happy to note that the same government has taken a tentative step along the lines of the suggestions that I had made.”
He expressed his hopes to continue with the process of an overhaul of the company when he eventually gets into power in 2023, with a transformational outlook such as the ones in Saudi Arabia and Brazil.
“It is a step in the right direction, but we are still far from what I had envisaged. I hope I’ll have the opportunity to complete the process of turning the NNPC into a genuinely world-class company in the mould of the NLNG, Aramco of Saudi Arabia, and Petrobras of Brazil, where Nigerians and institutions will invest in.”
