Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential candidate, promised yesterday that he would revisit the Oronsaye report on federal agency mergers and eliminate the fuel subsidy, which had been a drag on the economy.
Atiku, who spoke about his recovery plan for Nigeria at the Lagos Business School 2022 Alumnia Day which had in attendance business executives, also engaged the audience about other economic issues, including foreign exchange policy, debt crisis, power as well as the oil and gas sector.
He equally used the platform to pay tribute to the private sector for the successes recorded by the PDP between 1999 and 2007. Atiku started his session by giving a brief background with economic gains of the PDP between 1999 and 2007, including debt cancellation, privatization, banking reforms as well as effective working partnership with the private sector.
On the rising cost of governance, the former VP said he would revisit the Orosanye report and ensure the white paper report was in conformity with the principle of setting up the committee.
He further said his privatization plan was not to render people jobless but to ensure effective governance.
Speaking on fuel subsidy, he noted how the PDP government had phased out subsidy in batches, saying “I was the chairman for the removal of fuel subsidy committee and I recall how we removed the phase 1 and phase 2 of fuel subsidy. ‘’I will continue from were we stopped, remove fuel subsidy totally and channel the subsidy funds back to the economy. In other words, it’s just a fraud.” He described Nigeria’s debt situation as a mess, saying he would fix it if he was elected president.
He said: “If you are talking about foreign debt, we have done it before, I will engage our creditors and ask for debt forgiveness or cancellation like we did before. Coming to local debt, if we stabilize the economy, we will borrow less, propose a flexible payment plan. “Again, I want you to compare our records with the current government and you can see who did well economically.”
The former vice president stated that he would reform the oil and gas sector by ensuring the right investors were engaged, such that Nigeria’s crude production would increase, while ensuring the privatization of the three refineries in the country.
its main purpose which is to reduce out of school children in the country.
Asked to comment on the autonomy of the CBN, Atiku said the current managers of the apex bank were taking a cue from the current administration ‘which, according to him, lacks direction.’