Lagos
lawyer, Femi Falana, has kicked against suggestions that Nigeria should sell
off its national assets to raise funds for the country’s ailing economy.
Nigeria’s business
mogul and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, had suggested that the federal
government should sell off some national assets like the multi-billion dollar
Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited, NLNG, and use the proceeds to pull the
country from the current economic recession.
“If I had challenges in
my company, I would not hesitate to sell assets to remain afloat, to get to the
better times. It doesn’t make any sense for me to keep any assets and then
suffocate the whole organization,” Mr. Dangote, who is the chairman, Dangote
Group, told CNBC Africa.
“We have a lot of
assets to sell. We can sell part of the joint ventures, or part of the shares.
My suggestion before was that they should even sell 100 percent of NLNG. I
don’t think government should be in any business of investing in sectors like
LNG.”
Mr. Dangote’s
suggestion, backed by notable figures like Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and
Governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele, has generated intense debates among
Nigerians.
Mr. Falana told Premium
Times, Thursday, that the suggestion was “in total conflict with section 16 of
the (Nigerian) Constitution which has prohibited the concentration of the
nation’s wealth in the hands of a few people or a group.
“Indeed, by virtue of
section 44 of the Constitution, the nation’s natural resources shall be held in
trust for the Nigerian people by the federal government.”
Falana said that
senators would have been expected to kick against Dangote’s suggestion, since
they had sworn to protect the constitution.
“But
for selfish considerations, a few legislators who may be queuing up to participate
in the purchase of the nation’s assets are not prepared to defend the
Constitution.
“If the senate is
genuinely desirous to contribute meaningfully to the debate on the economy, it
should, as a matter of urgency, propose a substantial reduction in the jumbo
emoluments of federal legislators which are said to be the highest in the
world.”
Falana said the
country’s privatization programme in the past was discovered to be a rip off on
the nation and the people, but that nothing was done about it, despite a senate
resolution, under the leadership of the then senate president, David Mark, that
the government should recover such assets.
President Muhammadu
Buhari’s administration could still implement the resolution of the senate for
the interest of the national economy, Mr. Falana said.
- Premium Times
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