TheCable

Aminu Tambuwal, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential aspirant, says he will tackle “secrecy” in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) if elected president.

Tambuwal said this on Saturday in Calabar when he paid a visit to Ben Ayade, governor of Cross River.

The governor said he would ensure that there is transparency in the corporation in terms of its operations and revenue.

“NNPC has constituted itself into a government of its own and operates as if it is not accountable to anyone,” he said.

“The states are continually shortchanged by the federal government and NNPC. But all that will change when I’m elected president because I will take on the issues of secrecy in NNPC accounting and ensure that there is transparency, fiscal discipline so that Nigerians know the true state of things in the corporation’s operations in terms of the revenue accruable to the nation.

“The issue of reviewing revenue allocation formula is key to the development of the nation. The states need more funding in order to bring more meaningful development to the people across the nation, so we will work hard to do this by making sure that the states get their fair share of allocation.”

The former speaker lamented that the country has never been this polarised along ethnic and religious lines.

“We must take back our country, reunite our people and reposition the nation for it to be properly restructured for the benefit of all Nigerians. We need to secure Nigeria,” he said.

“This country has never been this divided and every right thinking Nigeria will know that without unity and peace, there won’t be meaningful development.”

On his part, Ayade said if Tambuwal tackles the issues of transparency in the NNPC, he would have solved 60 percent of Nigeria’s problems.

“Tambuwal like my humble self is a digital governor. Indeed, what you will find exciting about him is humility. He is urbane, hospitatable, well educated with impressive finesse. This shows good upbringing and character,” he said.

“We have illegally lost our oil wells, lost our land in Bakassi and oil revenue. We are the only south south state currently described as not oil producing. That is why we are thinking out of the box in what we refer to now as intellectual money.”