Ekweremadu Clashes With Saraki, Dangote Over Sale Of National Assets
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu on Wednesday led senators that disgarred with Senate President Bukola Saraki and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote over their call for the sale of the nation’s assets to stave off the current economic recession.
Speaking on Wednesday at plenary during a debate on the state of the economy, Ekewremadu, who was the chairman of the constitutional review committee in the seventh senate, reiterated the call for constitutional amendment to stop sharing of all revenue accruable to the federation account.
However, Ike Ekwerenmadu, deputy senate president, and George Akume, an All Progressives Congress (APC) senator form Benue state, cautioned against the sale of the assets during the debate.
The Deputy Senate President said: “UAE does not even allow you close to oil wells let alone sell them.
“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.”
He said the recession had buttressed the importance of savings, and called for amendment of the revenue sharing formula between the federal and state governments to encourage savings.
“We need to amend section 162 especially from 3,4,5,6 where each money in the federation account is made to be shared,” he said.
Advertisement
Also contributing to the debate, Senator George Akume advised Nigerians to refrain from calling for the sale of national assets, stressing 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?
“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,” he stated
He also called for the review of the revenue sharing formula to encourage savings, saying states should not insist on sharing revenue.
Early in the week, Dangote had called for the sale of the assets and this was echoed by Saraki on Tuesday who listed the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, airports, seaports, rail etc for sale.
Advertisement