SDP presidential candidate, Adebayo urges NNPCL to hands off fuel importation

*Says regulator mustn’t compete with those it is regulating

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the last general elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo has advised the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, to hands off the business of fuel importation and leave it solely for the marketers.
Adebayo wondered why a regulator is simultaneously playing with the set of people he is regulating as such act amounts to ‘rigging’.
According to him, “NNPCL must get out of importation business. Don’t rig the market. Allow everybody to bring their product to the marketplace . I don’t want the government to fix the price.
“NAFDAC (National Food, Drug, Administration and Control) doesn’t import drugs. It only regulates. Ministry of Water Resources does not sell water, it only regulates how the players should act. NNPCL and government should liberalise it.
“The business of bringing fuel into the country should be between the oil marketers and their bankers. The NNPCL was in the villa last week supposedly for policy related matters. How can you then be a competitor in a game you are actually officiating? “he asked.
Adebayo also took a swipe at the government for concessioning government property to individuals. For him, such action not only breeds corruption but also laziness.
In his words,”They should stop concessioning government assets to private people. When the late Chief Raymond Dokpesi founded AIT, he didn’t take over NTA. He only bought a licence to create AIT. When Igbinedion University was created, why didn’t they concession University of Benin to Chief Igbinedion?
“I don’t believe we should be concessioning government property to anyone. President Obasanjo said the Port Harcourt Refinery should be given to Aliko Dangote to run, but Yar’Adua said no. Now it has paid off for Dangote as he now has his own refinery, and yet the Port Harcourt refinery is still intact. Chances are that if he had been given the Port Hacourt refinery, he wouldn’t have created the Dangote refinery today”, he said.
The SDP presidential candidate noted that inspite of the short comings of the previous administration, it cannot be faulted when it comes to energy and infrastructure as former President Buhari performed creditably well even as he advised the Tinubu administration to follow the Buhari path.
According to him, “Buhari did well with infrastructure. That’s one area of President Buhari, in spite of his one trillion faults. When it came to investing in infrastructure, he focused on it to the best of his ability. He focused on that. “This people that came I now, I believe they have better ability than him (Buhari), but they should not forget that investing in infrastructure- rail line , better airport ,expanding the sea port because of ability to travel round the country, ability to carry good and services cheaply round the country , ability to move round the clock and that is why the issue of security should be dealt with decisively.
“I think he also started well on the issue of power for generation and distribution, which he removed from exclusive list to the concurrent list. They should further liberalize it to make sure that all this Discos that just collect money without power, go away, so that we can have a proper energy market”, he advised
On where the Tinubu administration will get the funding to execute all the projects, it sets out to implement, giving that the government’s earnings have consistently been on decline, he responded, “Two fishermen going to the same sea doesn’t mean they will catch the same amount of fish because the fishing skill of one would reflect.
“Two farmers farming next to each other will not have the same yield as the farming skill of each farmer will reflect in the output. What you get out of government depends on who you put in government.
“Nigeria is a rich country. There is enough money to take care of all of us. There is no doubt about that. The resources are there, and it is now left for the government, if they are efficient, whether they want to collect all their revenues.
“So, if they focus on not using government resources to dispense favours, if they focus on revenue to use it for public good. If they focus on efficiency in procure management. They can succeed”, Prince Adebayo posited.