Atiku Abubakar, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has come under attack over plans to sell NNPC if elected as president in 2019.
Atiku Wednesday described the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, as a “Mafia organization.”
Speaking during an interactive session with the business community in Lagos, the former Vice President declared that he would privatise NNPC even if doing so would cost him his life.
Atiku’s comment has since stirred diverse reactions from Nigerians on Twitter:
While some are in accordance with his plans to privatise NNPC, others are against it, describing it as a plan for PDP to loot funds.
Here are some comments gathered from Twitter:
@Geomohamusa “PDP is claiming this administration did not provide jobs and now the same PDP
@Engralonge1 “It is quite unfortunate we have this man in our country, so you don’t think how to have more companies in our country, your mission is to sell or privatize the one that is not enough. God forbid to have you as our president.
@Omotaye “Let him privatize the NNPC and see if there would be changes. NEPA was privatized and Nigerians have experienced tremendous changes. PHCN and BEDC are far better than the NEPA of before.”
@Ebuka_Akara “But If NNPC is privatised, It’ll do better because nobody who owns a business will sit and watch it fail.”
@Owendino1 “NNPC has always been his target even while he was Vice President which is one of the issues he had with OBJ. It’s obviously that it’s about exploitation and looting, Nitel was privatized yet we’ve got no landline today. I give up on Project Nigeria if this is the best we’ve got.
@Abrimatt “Mr. Atiku, Why is privatization your only means of national development, you approached Obasanjo during his tenure for this issue and he refused. This shows if you are elected Nigeria will return to darker ages than it was because you don’t have any plans to develop this country only to develop your friends.”
@Theshadeexpresss “The privatization birthed the telecom industry that’s currently employing millions of Nigerians & generating more corporate tax than the banking sector. All those companies privatized in that era were already near comatose due to the looting of their assets by the military regime.”
@Friendssch “Atiku can sell Nigeria and Nigerians and see nothing wrong on that, we are in trouble, no wonder Obasanjo warned us to be careful of him. He sold virtually all we had as a country to himself and he is telling us again. This is a clear warning. Patronage to MAKANO is reducing.”
@Ibrohandsome! “All of you against the privatisation of NNPC, how many of you are benefiting from NNPC today? Only 0.2 percent of Nigerians are reaping from that mafia organization. Think!
