I just laugh when I read comments that suggest some Nigerians see ATIKU as an "accomplished" business man who has the interest of Nigeria at heart. What an error.
I could forgive and ignore if such comments come from the under 25s because they obviously wouldn't know what this man called Atiku did to their future. Sadly, we don't have history being taught in schools neither do we have people chronicling events in our country and writing for the coming generations to read and be informed. If these under 25s or even under 30s knew, they would be wrapping bombs around themselves and looking for Atiku. Please don't get me wrong. I'm not advocating for violence on a man who obviously deserves it. I'm just trying to emphasize how bad people like Atiku have set this country up for failure and the reason we are where we are today which mischievous people now blame on Buhari who has only been there for 3 years plus.
What hurts me personally is when you find people of 45 years and above referring to Atiku as "accomplished businessman" and messiah. Where is that coming from. If one is not careful, one would lose hope in this country because of collective amnesia we display. Those who should teach the young have become those misinforming and misleading them. Very sad indeed. If for nothing, we should fear God unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known and to whom no secrets are hidden (excerpt from the Collect For Purity of the Anglican Communion).
As the man saddled with the responsibility by the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, Abubakar Atiku as Vice President and Head of National Council on Privatization (NCP) from 1999 started digging Nigeria's economic grave for today's extreme poverty and unemployment. This is not a sensational information. The records are there. I was an active participant in that privatisation at some point because I headed the Corporate Finance of a bank that was an active player in the privatisation process.
There were about 400 Federal Government assets then, if I'm not underestimating. They were assets our heroes past invested in so that we have a prosperous tomorrow (which has suddenly come) and a bright future. Huge real estate assets were part of it. Our heroes past had great visions. We should not be talking about unemployment, low economic growth and poverty in Nigeria today if we had only 20% of that vision and built of the legacies they left.
When the FG decided to sell, some of us wandered why but we also understood that nothing run by government has ever succeeded in this country. What belongs to all belongs to nobody is our natural philosophy in Nigeria. We have a public service that has become the chronic enemy of Nigeria. If we want this country to move forward one of the things we must do is to reform the entire public service. That would be a process of exorcising that service. That is story for another day. So, we wondered why sell but it was a no brainer to rationalise. We were hoping that the process would make those national assets much better off than they were. If was a no brainer too to think through how this could be achieved. Most of us looked forward to being part of the process that would see to the turnaround of those assets.
Atiku was Chairman of NCP and he started selling. First, the process was wrong, it did not take care of the future and the valuation of those assets was laden with a preemptive intention to defraud the entire people of Nigeria.
It would be nice for Atiku to come up with his side of the story. He should write a book on his time as NCP if he's as intelligent as some of you are quick to credit him with. It would generate interesting reactions. Atiku is only a smooth talker full of lies and deception. You should understand if a man could marry 4 wives from different regions. Smooth operator. Atiku should tell us who bought what, the rationale for choosing them, how the interest of the country was protected and what was left for the country when he left power, how the country is better off through a process he supervised. Atiku sold everything without any thought for today, without any thought for the future of Nigeria, without any thought for the ability of the buyers to make the best of the assets they bought, make it better and give the desired value. The question that informed people should ask is, how come almost all the national assets were bought by Nigerians and just a few with questionable foreign partners? Did it mean that no foreign investor was interested in a huge market like Nigeria and in the sale of major infrastructures and critical assets for industrialization that we were foolishly selling to all comers? Atiku should answer that question if the claim that he's an accomplished businessman and messiah can ever be correct even in the most primitive definition of that phrase. A businessman and messiah that sold at a loss, a businessman that sold to those who wouldn't add value, a businessman that sold to those who wouldn't bring in the much desired foreign capital. What sort of businessman is that? Over 90% of the money used to buy those assets were local and borrowed from local banks. It was so bad that many banks went under on account of that privatisation. Atiku and his committee did not find foreign investors worthy because the key foreign investors that were interested were not ready to "play ball" and were not comfortable with Atiku heading NCP. Greed and selfishness made Atiku and his committee to rather kill the future of this country.
Imagine the following national assets as some of the ones sold:
Nigeria Fertilizer Company
Eleme Petrochemical
Daily Times
Ughelli Power
Egbin Power
NICON Insurance
Aluminium Smelting Company
Transcorp Hilton Hotel
NICON Luxury Hotel
Sunti Sugar Ltd
NetCom House
Bacita Sugar Ltd
Major Assets of Nigeria Airways
Nigeria Machine Tools, Osogbo
NITEL
Tell me which of these assets would not be employing thousands of our youths today. Tell me which ones would not reduce our demand for FX. Tell me which one would not create multiplier opportunities for the growth of SMEs.
We should be weeping and be full of hatred for people under which this robbery and rape happened, the PDP. Rather than think of how we got here, we have started elevating them as heroes and messiahs so that they can come back to finish up the job and finish up the country. Is something wrong with us as a people? Do we easily forget? Were we created by another god?
Please imagine where Nigeria would be if we have those assets being well run with huge foreign capital inflows. How would a country like South Africa or even small Botswana or Rwanda have gone about this same process of privatisation? They would have made sure that they sell to attract huge inflow of foreign capital. They would have made sure that whoever bought will be able to make those assets to compete with the best in the world. They would have made sure the country retained a minor percentage for the future. They would have ensured there was real transfer of technology. They would have ensured some form of royalty is paid to the government annually on account of the evergreen goodwill of FG on those assets. This is basic business thinking. This is what someone who has the interest of Nigeria would do.
In 2007, Onigbolo Cement operating at 500,000 tonnes per annum was sold to Dangote at N1.7billion. Laughable to those who can see beyond the ordinary. A cement plant sold for less than $4million fa!
To those selling Atiku, you may need to check the records of the Nigerian Senate public hearing of August, 2011 to wake you up from this deep slumber and personality analysis error. That report succinctly captures how Atiku, through retinue of cohorts, fronts, shell companies, ring fenced over 70% of FG's assets through a brazen daylight robbery and gross abuse of the privatization process that he supervised. Please find time to read. It helps to take informed decisions. The records are there on your "accomplished businessman" and messiah creating thousands of jobs after killing millions. There is nothing sensational in my narratives. Its real life facts and all the Senators are alive today. It's shameful that they are not talking or carrying placards. If I have money, I will print that report and give free to all Nigerians and translate into the three major languages.
The 2011 privatization Senate Committee was made up of Senator Ahmed Lawan as Chairman, Senators Babafemi Ojudu, Philip Aduda, Mohammed Ndume, Ifeanyi Okowa, Hope Uzodinma and Mohammadu Magoro.
Lets look at Aluminium Smelting Company, ALSCON, that Atiku privatized. A very major asset that could solve multiple problems. ALSCON which Nigeria's heroes past built with $3.2 billion, was sold to a useless Russian firm, Russal for $130million by your accomplished businessman whose only business is stealing from you and i. As of the time of sale, ALSCON had received $120million for the dredging of Imo River, but was never done. They bought a company that had cash of $120m for $130m. Please do the maths.
When the Senate Seating of August, 2011 asked the Russian company the whereabouts of the $120million dredging money, the company's Deputy Managing Director, Vitaly Kuzrestov, said that the money has been used for Environment Impact Assessment." $120million for EIA? Laaaakuli! Short of saying we handed it over to Atiku but we can't say. ALSCON is still struggling. A major employer of labour with all the jobs requiring aluminum in this country still struggling.
FG's 5% share in Eleme Petrochemical worth USD27 million was never presented to at the National Council on Privatization before it was sold to Indorama. They are Atiku's friends. Indorama recovered this amount paid by just selling Polyethylene and Urea to the entire west Africa sub-region in just 14 months. They made their money back. What an "accomplished businessman" and messiah Atiku is. So he did not see this opportunity? Issokay o.
The Atikulate Business Theory of the "Messiahnic Accomplished Businessman" Atiku is simply: Sell to yourself and to your friends government assets that leaves millions in penury, set up personal businesses that provides for a few, be relevant in politics to hide your past sin, brainwash the youths you have stolen their future.
Atiku didn't employ the few hundreds he employed because he likes them, he needs them to work to preserve what he took from Government. QED. The business acumen of Atiku that most of you are bandying about and celebrating is smelly. Let's ask the simple question, after he left Nigerian Customs what business did Atiku do, how much money did he save and what return on investment has he recorded year on year to give him the stupendous wealth he's using to oppress us. These are questions we should ask because they are questions they would ask in decent societies. You all condemn Buhari because he chose to remain in his area of business strength that would not give him smelly wealth. Not everyone wants the kind of wealth we are crazy about in this country. You complain that Buhari's herds of cattle should have been bigger when the man just wants what will give him peace of mind and maintain his integrity. He's contented. Has that become a crime in our land? He understands that with contentment in our land everyone will be happy but that contentment will never happen if some people keep oppressing us with what they have directly or indirectly stolen from government and stolen from our commonwealth.
You rather extol a man who supervised sale of over 145 key Federal Government investments as a Vice President, without a thought for today. He still wants to be president and we just chose to ignore his sins of the past that is hurting us today. You would rather blame a man that got there barely 3 years ago for all the pains we are going through. I don't just get it. The drug for our kind of amnesia can never be found. Does a country just go bad in 3 years? Why can't we just see the trap? What about Buhari that offends people so much that they would rather hand Nigeria over to "Barnabas"? Initially it was the claim that he's Fulani. Another Fulani came, that noise died down. They say he's lifeless. If he is lifeless in your experience as medical doctors, is his Vice President lifeless too? What's the worst that could happen to a lifeless person? Is his VP not fit and proper to take over? Shouldn't that possibility excite us more? I want to believe there's more to this. It's either we are all hoping the era of corruption continues so that our own time will come or as a people we just don't know what we want or what is good for us which is indeed a tragedy.
Atiku that you want to put in charge of over $45billion in foreign reserve did not think or argue that these national assets he sold be turned around by Turnaround Management Firms scattered all over the world. That wouldn't put huge money in his account.
He did not think to revitalise these assets by changing management and staff.
He did not think of how the country can attract billions and billions of foreign capital through the sale of these assets as we have seen in less endowed countries.
Atiku sold them to whomever will play ball. The chicken has come home to roost, the huge youthful population that our heroes past envisaged when investing in these assets have come of age, they need jobs and cannot find jobs. Sadly, they know not who afflicted these misery on them. They are singing the praise of the man who supervised the rape of their future. Very sad indeed.
One thing is sure. For those who know the truth and say it, God sees. For those who know the truth and don't say it, God sees. For those who are simply being mischievous with the position they have taken, God sees also. For those who are confronted with facts and choose to ignore, God sees. He judges everyone by what He sees.
May God save Nigeria 🇳🇬. And quickly too!
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