According to the Kaduna State leader, about 70 million people, or 40% of Nigeria's total population, currently lives below the poverty line, despite the fact that Nigeria has earned at least $1 trillion from oil in the past 50 years.
Nasir El-Rufai, the Governor of Kaduna State, commented on Monday at a lecture in Abuja that Nigeria ought to get rid of the corrupt and fraudulent Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The company has been deeply submerged in corruption and the governor suggests disbanding the current company in favor of a new one. At the 7th Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series, he said, "If you don't kill the NNPC, it will kill Nigeria."
As a guest speaker, Gov. El-Rufai said, "The NNPC only remitted about 58 per cent of the monies earned between 2012 and the first half of 2015. A company with the audacity to retain 42 per cent of a country’s money has become a veritable parallel republic!”
Gov. El-Rufai mentioned another example in 2012 where the company sold N2.77 trillion in crude oil while paying only N1.66 trillion to the national account.
According to the Kaduna State leader, about 70 million people, or 40% of Nigeria's total population, currently lives below the poverty line, despite the fact that Nigeria has earned at least $1 trillion from oil in the past 50 years.
"The NNPC feels entitled to consume more resources than the 36 States, the FCT, and the Federal Government combined,” Gov. El-Rufai said. “How can a country so dependent on oil revenues have been so lax about the proper governance, efficiency, and security of its oil industry?
"We should replace the NNPC with brand new organizations that are fit for a purpose — a commercialized and corporatized national oil company and new industry regulators" that pays due taxes and royalties, he said.