Senate President, David Mark
Against the backdrop of a recent revelation by Vice-President Namadi Sambo that 80 per cent of government companies that had been privatised had failed to operate properly due to lapses in the privatisation process, the Senate Tuesday set up a seven-man ad hoc committee to investigate the privatisation and commercialisation activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to date.
The setting up of the committee followed the adoption of a motion by Senator Ahmad Lawan (ANPP, Yobe North) who incidentally is to chair the panel. The motion was co-sponsored by 25 other senators.
Other members of the committee, which has four weeks to submit its report, are Senators Babafemi Ojudu (ACN, Ekiti), Alli Ndume (PDP, Borno), Philip Aduda (PDP, FCT), Ifeanyi Okowa (PDP, Delta), Hope Nzodima (PDP, Imo) and Mohammed Magoro (PDP, Kebbi).
Although it is not expressly stated in the committee’s terms of reference, it was gathered that the audience with all the directors-general (DGs) of the BPE since its inception, including its pioneer DG, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, Dr Julius Bala, Mrs. Irene Chigbue and the incumbent DG, Ms. Bola Onagoruwa, is to enable the committee to investigate the process through which the BPE privatised the companies and establish the agreements and conditions upon which the privatisation was consummated.
It will also determine how much was realised from the sale of the companies and where the proceeds were paid into while also determining how many jobs were lost and gained after the privatisation of companies.
Other terms of reference of the probe panel are to identify the factors militating against the expected improved and good performance of the privatised companies as well as determining the best way forward for the privatisation exercise and the desirable development and growth of the sold companies.
In his remark after announcing the committee’s composition, Senate President David Mark charged the panel to approach its assignment with an open mind, saying: “There should not be any witch-hunting.”
He told the committee members that the Senate had no predetermined position on the investigation because, according to him, “the bureau would have done a few good things and a few bad things”.
Mark said: “To the best of our ability, we should approach it with an open mind; no playing to the gallery in this exercise. Let us do a thorough work so that when the findings are brought here, people will appreciate the fact that those who have been put in the committee have done a thorough work; a work that can stand the test of time.”
He charged further: “The public should be involved and those who are stakeholders should be involved. Definitely, the searchlight will be on the members of the committee and you must be above board, absolutely above board in what you are going to come up with.
“I believe that there could have been problems with the implementations and those problems must be brought out not just to apportion blames, but you must also make recommendations so that as we continue the privatisation exercise, those mistakes that were made in the past will not be repeated in the future.”
He therefore charged the committee to make recommendations that would be beneficial to the nation in the future.
Presenting the motion earlier, Lawan noted that the Federal Government embarked on the privatisation and commercialisation of federal public enterprises through the enactment of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Act No 25 of 1988, Bureau of Public Enterprises Act No 78 of 1993 and Public Enterprises Act of 1999.
He said the primary and fundamental purpose of privatisation by the Federal Government was to divest and free the subsidies that were paid into the operations of the enterprises, so as to fund better the provision of critical and crucial infrastructure.
The senator however expressed concern that the Chairman of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), Sambo, told the nation that 80 per cent of government companies that had been privatised had failed to operate properly due to lapses in the privatisation process.
He lamented that due to the collapse of the privatised companies, there were massive loss of jobs and colossal loss of economic returns to the Nigerian economy, citing the steel sector that used to employ up to 20,000 workers but now has less than 4,000 after the exercise.
Seconding the motion, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia) said there was no aspect of the privatisation exercise that had succeeded.
He said: “Our problem in Nigeria is that we start with good intention and at the end of the day what we see is not what the original intention is.”
Lamenting that corruption is the bane of privatisation, whereby those who buy the companies strip them of machineries and send the tools abroad, Abaribe said: “Someone must be called to account if we are to stop this ugly trend.”
Also supporting the motion, Senator Smart Adeyemi (PDP, Kogi) said: “Privatisation is the worst major government policy since our independence,” adding that, “it is a policy that has handed over our collective wealth to some privileged Nigerians. Privatisation has further enslaved us as a people”.
Describing privatisation as “a policy without human face”, Adeyemi said: “At the time it was conceived, we were told that it is a policy that will enhance efficiency of the privatised public companies.”
In his contribution, Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba said privatisation would have ordinarily been a good policy but for the selfishness of those charged with implementing it in Nigeria.
He said: “The reason why privatisation is a desirable policy is the realisation all over the world that government has no business in business.”
On his part, Senator Ganiyu Solomon (ACN, Lagos) lamented that it would appear that the privatisation exercise was not designed to succeed by those in charge of its implementation.
The Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu however said the main essence of the motion was to ensure that privatisation would be made to serve our people and not to jettison the policy.
He also lamented that the policy was programmed as a huge fraud, adding that “at the time it was done, some people took advantage of the weakness in our monitoring policy”.
Others who spoke in support of the motion included Senators Abdu Ningi (PDP, Bauchi), Nurudeen Abatemi (PDP, Kogi), Kabiru Garba Marafa (ANPP, Zamfara), Gbenga Kaka (ACN, Ogun) and George Akume (ACN, Benue).
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