The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Bureau for Public Enterprises yesterday disagreed on whether the privatisation of government-owned assets had been successful.
BPE Director-General Alex Okoh and NLC President Ayuba Wabba clashed at the public hearing on a bill to repeal the Privatisation Act, organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation.
Okoh said 234 agencies had been privatised since the agency’s inception with attendant successes.
Okoh called for the sustenance of the privatisation process, saying it had freed up over N1trillion that would have been paid out as subvention to government enterprises. He however, stressed that a vibrant law was needed to drive the process.
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Okoh said: “Our point of agreement is that not all public infrastructure and assets need to be privatised. But those that need to be privatised or concessioned need to be guided by a clear and robust piece of legislation.”
But, NLC President Ayuba Wabba argued that the exercise had created more poverty than wealth and employment opportunities, which was why Nigeria remained the world’s poverty capital.
He said privatisation is not the only way to ensure the survival of government-owned enterprises.
Wabba also insisted that by the provisions of Section 16 of the 1999 Constitution, government had every reason to get involved in business.
He disclosed that efforts were made in the past to compel the government to privatise both the education and health sector until the NLC persuaded the president to reject the proposal.
The union, he said, was determined to intensify its opposition to the exercise.