BEVERLY HILLS, September 21, (THEWILL) – The deputy Senate President, Ike Ekwerenmadu, and George Akume, former Senate Minority Leader, have kicked against the call by some Nigerians for the sale of the nation’s assets as a means of surviving the current economic recession.
The duo who spoke on the floor of the senate during a debate on the state of the economy, on Wednesday, declared that no country resorts to selling its assets as a way out of economic recession.
THEWILL recalls that Business mogul, Aliko Dangote, had called for the sale of the assets which was re-echoed by Senate President Bukola Saraki, during his welcome address to the senators.
However, Ekwerenmadu, and Akume, an All Progressives Congress (APC) senator and former Governor of Benue state, opted to echo the views of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) which disagreed on the sale of national assets.
“UAE does not even allow you close to oil wells let alone sell them,” Ewerenmadu said.
“For a country like Saudi Arabia, its budget each year is run by investments from oil revenue. Other countries are investing; I am sure we will not be fair to the next generation if we sell off our assets.
“If we must sell, we have to sell the non-performing assets so that people can turn them around and create employment.
“We need to amend section 162 especially from 3,4,5,6 where each money in the federation account is made to be shared.”
Commenting, Akume advised Nigerians to refrain from calling for assets sale saying that the country should focus on recovering stolen funds.
“If we want to sell our oil assets at this time when the price of oil crashed, how much are we going to realise?” he asked.
“We are making a mistake here; what we are doing is to ensure that those who are within the bracket of the stolen dollars will still come to buy.
“The country should rather focus on industrialisation through agriculture.”
Story by David Oputah
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