TheCable

Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says he had plans to reform the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) in 2018. 

Atiku said this on the heels of the unveiling of NNPC Limited by President Muhammadu Buhari, in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). 

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, the former vice-president claimed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) led government cut short his plans. 

He left APC in 2017 ahead of the 2019 election.

During the peak of the 2019 presidential campaign, Atiku said he would privatise NNPC if elected.

He said he would deregulate the NNPC and sell it to Nigerians, the way former President Olusegun Obasanjo sold Nigerian Telecommunications Limited.

“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,” he tweeted. 

He said the restructuring of the company was commendable but was far from his vision for the company. 

“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. It is a step in the right direction, but we are still far from what I had envisaged,” Abubakar said. 

“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 NLNG, Aramco of Saudi Arabia and Petrobras of Brazil, where Nigerians and institutions will invest in.”