I saw Prof Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Power gleefully beating his chest on TV for selling off the Power Holding Company of Nigeria(PHCN) after so many years of futile efforts to bring regular power supply as if it was his primary assignment. Another way of passing the buck after gross mismanagement. Gen. Obasanjo did the same with NITEL, NICON, AIRWAYS and many other public infrastructures. There is a renewed attempt to frustrate the universities and perhaps subsequently sell them off to few Nigerians. As a matter of fact, I’m expecting the bidding for the selloff of Aso Rock to commence due to same reason of gross inefficiency and mismanagement. Privatization or liberalization is not all about selling off all public infrastructures and establishments. It is allowing the private sector compete favourably with the public sector. It is not to kill the public sector so that the private sector may grow. If we cannot manage our public sectors, we do not need to sell them to other Nigerians but bring in other Nigerians who can manage them better. What we lack in these areas is mismanagement. The solution is not therefore to sell them off but to bring in better managers; this time, through the ballot boxes. If there are Nigerians who can efficiently turn these companies around in the private sectors, there are more who are trained to do better in the public sectors too.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 08:10:33 +0000
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