former Edo State Deputy Governor Peter Obadan yesterday urged the incoming Muhammadu Buhari administration to revisit the privatisation of national companies.
Obadan noted that this would enable the government to address the myriads of challenges in the power, oil and gas sectors and other key areas of the economy.
He said revisiting the core privatised sectors would ensure that his cabinet has a good ground to make things work more efficiently.
Addressing reporters in Benin, the state capital, Obadan noted that “corruption has been the basis” for the country’s sundry woes.
He said: “We have seen the privatisation of some of these sectors and we have seen them not working. He (Buhari) would want to find out why they are not working. If we are going to reengineer those areas, I am sure he would willingly do that. But I am sure there is a strategic thing already set up.”
The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) noted that the crises rocking the outgoing Goodluck Jonathan administration were deep.
He said: “When we look at the Power sector, they (Jonathan team) have had all sorts of strategic plans. They have had all sorts of money injected into it right from 1999 till date. Yet, we have not seen much change. Don’t forget that there is a very serious competition by external factors. You have those who are importing generators and all that; you have those who are importing oil to this country.
“So, these are people who are ensuring that nothing actually works effectively in the country.”
Obadan added: “To me, Buhari’s administration will have to go to the drawing board, reassess what has happened and why we have failed to achieve success with the calibre of people he is going to bring in.
This is because corruption, no doubt, has been the basis for it. We have seen the privatisation of some of these sectors and we have seen them not working. He would want to find out why they are not working.
“You know the medical professionals, what they call the death throes. When a man is about to die, you find him at the tail end struggling for survival. That is what the country is literarily experiencing. What really they don’t appreciate is the fact that Gen. Buhari has a tenacious grip on the minds and souls of the people who are fed up of the Jonathan administration.
“It is obvious that Gen. Buhari actually won the March 28 election by at least 80 per cent. But the moment he won the election, there arose this proclivity of people for social disorder to destabilise the incoming administration, cause resentment among the people and ensure that if Gen. Buhari is going to take over at all, he has a tough time.
“But what they forget is that even tough times don’t last but tough people do. Gen. Buhari is a tough man; he is trying to put together a tough team that will outlast the tough times.”