Moghalu brands NNPC a 'joke', promises to privatise it

The presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, has disclosed that hell privatise the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to make it a real successful corporation.

The former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), told Pulse during an interview on Monday, November 19, 2018, that the state corporation is currently a 'cesspit of corruption' used to line the pockets of politicians in Nigeria.

While faulting President Muhammadu Buhari's handling of the oil sector, Moghalu vowed to sell all of Nigeria's 'decrepit' refineries while also allowing market forces to determine the price of fuel.

He said, "Market forces will determine the price of petrol. I will abolish the petroleum subsidy and deregulate downstream petroleum.

"Buhari increased the price of petroleum by a whopping 70% after claiming that he would reduce the price. If he had allowed market forces, the price of petrol would have found its natural level.

"It could be N100 or it could be N80 because many people would be involved in fuel importation and distribution, so the competitive factor would come in.

"By the way, the first thing I'm going to do is to sell all these decrepit refineries that Buhari's government has been promising to repair since 2015.

"I'll privatise NNPC. NNPC is a joke. It's a cesspit of corruption. There is nothing that the NNPC is doing for Nigeria. It's the imprest account of every politician in Nigeria. They just share the money there. There's nothing that's going on there and the reason is because the management of it is opaque - there's no transparency.

"There must be at least a partial privatisation of the NNPC with the private sector owning not less 51%. That is what will make it a real successful corporation."

"I don't care about stepping on toes" - Moghalu

Prof. Kingsley Moghalu ece-auto-gen

To actualise his vision for Nigeria, Moghalu said he does not care on whose toes he has to step as long as it helps the country. He clarified that this means he'll be a decisive leader and not necessarily a confrontational one.

He said, "The reason why I know that I'll achieve a lot in four years is this. As president of Nigeria, I'm going to govern Nigeria largely with the mechanism of four offices that'll be in the presidency: the office of national strategy, the national office of risk management, the office of performance management and the office of human capital development.

"These four offices will drive my presidency and will be measuring our performance against benchmarks that we have set as an overall strategy for four years. We'll run Nigeria like a corporation.

"I don't care about stepping on toes, In fact, I'll smash a lot of toes. If your toe is stopping progress in this country, I'm going to be your enemy.

"When I talk about smashing toes, I'm not saying that I'll have a confrontational style, I'm just saying I'm going to be a decisive leader."

2019 presidential election

The 2019 presidential election, scheduled for February 16, 2019, is billed to be closely-fought between President Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, of the People's Democratic Party (PDP).

Alongside Moghalu in the chasing pack is Donald Duke of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Oby Ezekwesili of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC).

Others are Tope Fasua of the Abundance Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), Eunice Atuejide of the National Interest Party (NIP), Adesina Fagbenro-Byron of the Kowa Party (KP), Chike Ukaegbu of the Advanced Allied Party (AAP), Hamza Al-Mustapha of the People's Party of Nigeria (PPN), Obadiah Mailafia of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and many more.