Atiku Abubakar vow to break NNPC and Power Sector mafias if elected President

Former Vice President and contender of the Presidential ticket of the All People’s Congress, Alh. Atiku Abubakar, disclosed yesterday that he would break what he described as “mafias” in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the power sector, if voted as in the next presidential polls.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on his economic agenda, he stated that the mafias in the petroleum industry and the power sector had continued to hold Nigerians to ransom and must be cleared for a genuine progress to be made on the socio-economic development fronts.


According to the former number-two man, even after the privatization of the successor companies of Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, the mafia in that sector has continued to make it impossible for Nigerians to have power supply.

His words, “I remember when we were in office, I told my boss, the president.

I said, sir, ‘there are two mafias in this country. One: in that time NEPA, (Power holding company of Nigeria, PHCN). The second one is NNPC. Unless you break those mafias, you will never get those sectors working.

“Unfortunately, up till now, we have not been able to break those mafias. So, one you must do is to be prepared to dismantle the mafia in PHCN which up till now has decided not to allow us to have sufficient power and also the mafia in NNPC”.

Alh. Atiku said that his government would ensure an inclusive growth in the economic development with a view to allowing ordinary Nigerians benefit from the growth recorded by the nation’s economy in the past years.

“The benefits of the economic growth does not trickle down because the government is structured in such a way that wealth remains in the hands of a few”, he said.

The aspirant said, “government is serious business and people who don’t know how to run business should not have a business running government”.

He promised to grant tax waivers to sectors that create jobs and that in the long run, the economy would benefit more from a government policy that provides incentives for large corporate organizations to expand and employ millions of Nigerians would have jobs and then pat tax to government.

His words, “what is the problem if I call Aliko Dangote and say, Aliko, I am going to give you tax waiver but can you give me a million jobs? What’s is wrong with it? Out of those million jobs, of course, they will pay tax.

So, why do you say that I don’t have the will? I want to challenge anybody to give me the opportunity and see whether I have the will or not”.

On security, Alh. Atiku said he would replace the Security Adviser with a National Security Council and aggressively combat the scourge of Terrorism and Insurgency by increased resources and better co-ordination between the security agencies.

He said that he would also improve Civil-military relations and pave the way for the establishment of State Police.

According to him, an APC government under him would promote increased devolution of powers to State and Local governments.


Credit: Emma Ujah/Levinus Nwabughiog/Vanguard