President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday expressed dissatisfaction with the ongoing privatisation process in the country, saying it has not reached the expectations of Nigerians.
To this effect, the president directed that industries still moribund after they had been privatised should be sanctioned.
Jonathan said that he was of the opinion that a number of privatised enterprises were not doing well.
The president, who expressed his displeasure while inaugurating the National Council on Privatisation chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo in Abuja, said that he was concerned that some companies that had been privatised for over 10 years had not been working.
Members of the newly inaugurated council are the minister of finance as vice chairman, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF), attorney general of the federation (AGF), ministers of justice, and those of national planning, information, power, environment, mines and steel development
Others include the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, special adviser to the president on economic matters, president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), chairman of the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) and the director-general of the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) who would serve as secretary of the council.
While inaugurating the council, President Jonathan said: “The whole concept of privatisation started long ago. One thing I want us to address our minds to is the whole concept of privatisation which started long time ago. The federal government delegated some of its responsibilities to the private sector over the period.
“We believed the private sector will handle things better that than the public sector. But the whole story about privatisation has not been as successful as Nigerians expected it to be. The feeling is that a number of enterprises that have been privatised by the federal government are not doing too well.
“These are the kinds of areas the new council members should address their minds to: the ones that had been done and the new ones that are yet to be done.
“In any agreement or arrangement you will have with the private sector that will take over assets of government, we must make sure that we build monitoring into it and there has to be some sanctions.
“If enterprise have been privatised and over the period some of them over ten years they are still dead, it’s probably people who bought them never knew the kind of business they were going in for, or probably, on our own part, we did not give enough protection to the whole transaction.
“Government spent so much money to set up these enterprises; the idea is not just to make money but to also create wealth and jobs for Nigerians. By privatising these enterprises, we expect that the core interest of government of creating wealth and jobs must endure. “
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