10 things President Tinubu needs to look at doing in a bid to end this petrol price/petroleum subsidy crisis once and for all

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Nigeria’s NNPC needs to be privatised like yesterday with the government holding a stake of no more than 25% on it. Foreign partners should hold about a 50% stake, with the company floated on the Lagos, New York, London, Frankfurt and Tokyo stock exchanges

[2] Then, the NNPC needs to be recalibrated as a diversified conglomerate with a presence in manufacturing, agriculture, steelmaking, food processing, automobile assembly, power generation, shipbuilding, aircraft manufacturing, rail franchise operations, aviation, etc

[3] With the Dangote Lekki refinery now into production, maybe the three NNPC refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri should be converted into factories to manufacture finished goods

[4] I believe the assets of the Ajaokuta and Aladja steel mills should be handed over to this new NNPC Plc with a mandate to supply it with steel for manufacturing

[5] President Tinubu needs to send a new Petroleum Industry Bill to the National Assembly stating that the government will no longer play any role in the petroleum industry. Competition among operators will determine the retail price of petrol across Nigeria

[6] With the scrapping of the NNPC, the federal allocation formula will also end. Oil-producing states will control the wells within their domain and keep 50% of all revenue generated from such ventures. This will enable output to rise back to its historical figure of 2.5m barrels a day

[7] Our oil-producing states will then remit 20% to the federation account, 10% to a sovereign wealth fund for emergencies and 20% into a regional geo-political zone fund. It is no accident that production has fallen to 1.35m barrels a day in 2024, from 2.7m barrels a day during the Goodluck era

[8] This new NNPC will be mandated to have at least one facility in each of our 36 states. It should be the bellwether of the Nigerian economy, kind of like Fiat in Italy, San Miguel in the Philippines or Samsung in South Korea

[9] As Nigeria’s flagship company, the NNPC shall be the official sponsor of the Super Eagles. Bringing sporting glory to a nation helps lift national morale and creates a “feel good factor.”

[10] This privatised NNPC should look to expand through acquisitions with a view to purchasing a major oil firm like Total, Agip, Mobil, Texaco, Shell, etc. The expertise such a purchase will bring along is invaluable. It is only when you have that kind of competition in the economy that retail prices will start to fall

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com