Senator Shehu Sani using allegory has condemned the Federal Government’s planned sale of national assets to finance the deficit of 2018 budget.
Sani representing Kaduna South said “To sell your national assets to fund budget is to sell your intestines and bladder in order to be able to buy food.”
Recall that Mr. Ben Akabueze who is the Director General of the Budget Office had on November 27, last year affirmed that the Federal Government has finalised plans to sell some National assets to generate revenue for annual budgets between 2018 and 2020.
Mr. Akabueze explained that the country was not generating enough revenue, therefore, it had become effective to borrow and borrowing would stop if revenue generation rose.
Among some of these assets to be sold are National Integrated Power Plant (NIPP) plants, National Parks, as well as National Arts Theatre and Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos.
Other assets being sold also are non-core assets which include mines and steel sector, houses, and estates.
The Committee was also told that the power generation plants constructed on behalf of the government by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) under the NIPP were going to be sold too.
These include the Alaoji Power Station in Abia State, a 1074 Mega Watts (MW) capacity plant; the 561MW capacity Calabar Power Station; the Egbema Power Station, a 338MW simple cycle gas turbine plant and Geregu II Power Station in Kogi State with 434 MW capacity.
The funds from the privatisation of these government assets would be used to finance a deficit of N2.005 trillion in the 2018 budget.
Sani, Tuesday, tweeted “There are two types of people that buy national assets whenever they are auctioned in the name of privatization: (1)Rich people close to the corridors of power called businessmen, but are vultures (2)Rich people buying on behalf of those in power called investors, but are front.”
Meanwhile, Sani, the former All Progressives Congress, APC, senator who recently defected to the People’s Redemption Party, PRP, said that the Buhari administration is deceitful about restructuring.
The senator said this in a Twitter post via his official twitter handle@Shehusani on Monday said that even though the previous Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governments ignored restructuring, the current APC government is deceitful.
“The government of the past ignored restructuring; the government of the present is deceitful about restructuring,” he posted on twitter.
There have been debates on the need for restructuring of Nigeria, the latest involving accusation and counter-accusation of insincerity between the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.
Mr. Abubakar is pushing restructuring as a major campaign policy, a move which Mr. Osinbajo says is borne out of insincerity.
