19 November 2018
You really do not need to privatize NNPC all you need to do is to restructure our entire economic system to private sector control, private sector driven, at that point PIB will automatically kick in, and the administrative roles of NNPC will automatically shifts to Ministry of Petroleum while her market retail role shifts to the private sector.
But note, if the retail role shifts to private sector, a role that had hitherto been a source of income for government, then the government needs to fall back on taxes as her main source of revenue.
So at the stage you are restructuring the economy from public to private, this is not the time to talk about corporate tax breaks, it is rather the time to strengthen the tax sector and make tax payments a culture.
The reason is simple. It should be noted that once the government is dependent on an organized private sector to run the institutions of state including NNPC, government source of income will now rest on taxes.
At this point, reducing corporate taxes shouldn’t be the prime concern of government as contained in the plan, rather that’s when the government should attempt to stabilize the tax regimes and tax infrastructure through advancement of technology and public enlightenments on tax payments.
As the private sector grows and privatization regimes takes root, automatically the sector create its own specialized sectoral demands for Human Resources, this is where job creation kicks in. You do not create jobs by announcing that you will create 3 Million jobs yearly, if it is that easy everyone will do it, it is only an uninformed electorate that can be deceived with such gimmicks, you can only create jobs through the application of effective workable policies and a conscious investment on a dynamic and specific sector, either in industry, housing, infrastructure, science and or technology.
Job creation on its own is an end product of a successful policy implementation channelled towards a specific sector of an economy. it is not a product bought and sold in the market or used as a campaign promise.
I do not claim to be a sole authority on these matters, but to an extent this is the general thinking on the matter, though personally, I think Atiku's plan is over ambitious and over promised. This is just my common sense personal opinion.
Princewill Odidi is a Development Economist writing from Atlanta, Georgia
