Why NNPC should be privatised - Ex-CBN Deputy Gov

Prof. Kingsley Moghalu, former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) has called for a partial privatisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC).

Moghalu made this submission in his keynote address at the 2017 Annual Directors’ Conference of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria (IOD) on Thursday in Abuja.

The theme of the conference is “Implementing Best Corporate Governance Practice in Nigeria’s Public and Private Sectors.’’

Moghalu said that the failure of corporate governance to take off in Nigeria’s public sector was part of Nigeria’s longstanding and continuing crisis of governance.

He said that the public sector corporate governance in Nigeria was faced with several challenges such as culture of patronage, political interference and double standard in stakeholder-shareholder accountability.

“Nigerian stakeholders who are shareholders of a commercial company will demand accountability and performance if those attributes are perceived to be absent.

“But, they will not be as exercised by the failure of public corporations because they believe, along with partisan politicians, that these institutions exist to serve vested patronage interests rather than the public interest.

“Examples include the evident and massive failures of corporate governance in big public establishments.

“The National Assembly should amend the structure of public corporations such as the NNPC.

“The necessary two actions are to partially privatise NNPC and bring in companies and individuals to invest in them and improve accountability.

“Second, the powers of the Petroleum Minister need to be reduced,’’ he said.

He said that the corporate governance in CBN needed to be improved also and regretted that the apex bank had been operating without a board for the past two years.

He said that apex bank was operating without a board in clear contravention of the CBN Act.

Earlier in his opening address, IOD’s President, Alhaji Ahmed Rufai said that the main objective of the conference was to create a conducive environment for members to have the opportunity to meet their counterparts from other parts of the nation.

He said it was  to address through  technical sessions, contemporary advocacy issues affecting the nation.

“The choice of this important theme has been carefully made in recognition of the challenges our policy makers both in government and in private sector continue to face in implementing the basic tenets of corporate governance .

“There are many examples of this challenge. Take, for instance, the subject of ethical values. It is common knowledge that the eradication of corruption has been a major challenge in almost all sectors of our economy.

“ In spite of the numerous efforts and attempts to tackle the issue of corruption, it seems to be spreading even more.

“There is hardly any where one  goes  these days without encountering the demand for money for one service or the other whether it is in the public service setting or even in a private organization,’’ he said.

In his remark, Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi, who was the Special Guest of Honour, said that the leadership of any organisation was critical to the success of such organisation.

He the leadership issues contributed to the failure of Nigerian institutions despite having individuals who could compete with anyone in any other part of the world.

IOD caters and speaks for directors in the private sector in their individual capacities across the various sectors of the economy.

NAN