Atiku: Between Privatisation And Personalisation

By

Jonathan Manok

restu_nnunu@yahoo.co.uk

 

One was discussing with a friend and he retorted: I do not want Ibrahim Babangida, Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar to replace President Olusegun Obasanjo. His reason being that IBB and Buhari are retired military men and it is time for a break with men with proclivity toward violence.  For Vice President Atiku Abubakar, he dropped hints of his alleged corruption.

 

Atiku’s alleged corruption is premised on his chairmanship of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP.) My friend averred that the Vice President has literally bought every enterprise on offer through his cronies and fronts. His sole evidence was that Chief Peter Okocha’s Sadiq Petroleum bought African Petroleum (AP.)

 

The Vice President has been a victim of guilt by association. It is not denied that Okocha is a friend of Atiku. But how many of the Vice President’s friends and cronies have bought assets through the privatization programme. Of over 60 enterprises privatized since he became NCP chairman in 1999, my friend could only identify one that was sold to an associate of the Vice President. And Okocha’ s firm went through due process of bidding, undertaking due diligence and submitting technical and financial proposals— and finally emerging the highest bidder.

 

Let us elaborate on the AP saga. During his stewardship as Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, often poured scorn on the accusation that Okocha won the bid for AP because he is the Vice President’s friend. Of the three downstream companies available for privatization, according to el-Rufai, AP’s financial health was the least desirable. And if he was to sell a company to someone who was fronting for his then boss, he should have the decency to give the Vice President a healthy enterprise. AP, National Oil and Chemical Company Limited (now Conoil Plc) and Unipetrol (now Oando Plc)  were on offer about the same time.

 

 We should allow facts make this case: Is Dr. Mike Adenuga who bought National Oil a crony of the Vice President?  Is Alhaji Aliko Dangote who bought Benue Cement Company, Oturkpo; Savannah Sugar Company, Numan; and Oshogbo Steel Rolling Mill a friend of Atiku? Is Chief Femi Otedola who bought National Unity Line a crony of the Vice President? Is Indorama Group that bought Eleme Petrochemical Company a front for the NCP Chairman? Are Chief Jimoh Ibrahim and Engineer Mike Orugbo who bought NICON Insurance Plc and National Fertiliser Company of Nigeria respectively fronts of Atiku?

 

 Is Transcorp, which won the bid for NICON Hilton Hotel a shell company of the Vice President? At least, even those uncharitable to Atiku would admit that he would hardly touch the Holy Grail (or is it poisoned chalice) that is Transcorp as their goals are anti-thetical to the goals of a decent society and the ambition of the Vice President. Let us not forget that Festus Odimegwu and Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke’s mercantilist goal of tenure elongation was diametrically opposed to the desires of most Nigerians for respect for the provisions of the 1999 constitution. 

 

In this land of selective amnesia, it is hardly puzzling that sights have not been trained at some transactions that should worry all. Nigerians should demand answers as to why Ajaokuta Steel Complex and Nigeria Iron Oil Mining Company, Itakpe were concessioned to Global Infrastructure by the Federal Ministry of Power and Steel without due process. Why were the two transactions taken away from the remit of the Bureau of Public Enterprises? The case cannot be made that it was because the transaction strategy was concession given that the BPE has successfully concessioned the 25 terminals of the Nigerian port system.

 

Indeed, the denouement of the AP transaction is that Sadiq Petroleum has lost the shares it acquired through the privatization programme, no thanks to the debts AP owed the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which were hidden from the BPE and the prospective investors that conducted due diligence on the enterprise by the former management of AP. Following the inability of the core investors (Sadiq Petroleum) to successfully resolve the indebtedness of AP to NNPC estimated at over N10 billion, the latter had to take possession of the former. The Federal Government has now directed the BPE to privatize the shares re-possessed by the NNPC.

 

The sad end of Sadiq Petroleum’s involvement in the privatization programme validates the contention of el-Rufai that there was no political interference by the Vice President in the AP transaction. With the information available to him as NCP Chairman, it would amount to economic suicide for the Vice President to allow a front to buy the bad case that was AP. 

 

 

Jonathan Manok

University of Abuja,

Gwagwalada, Abuja