12 August 2019
'Who will buy a non performing factory at a reasonable price? If we must privatize then we need to recoup at least the initial investment made, we need to get back the total money used to build the factories otherwise we should Commercialize it first, and improve on the market value, at that point people will pay better if a product has profit potentials.
'Privatization is good, but if you have to sell, then sell only if you can make some profit, if not, if you have to sell at a loss, which in all instances that’s the case given our past history of privatization, then the whole essence of industrialization becomes using state funds to build factories and handing it over to private persons who in most cases are buying it with state funds. We have to stop this.
'Privatization only makes sense if the state has an efficient tax regime. But our case is different. With all the privatized industries in the state and other levies from mineral deposits we barely raise 20 billion a year on IGR. We cannot continue to do this to our people, our political elites cannot continue to enrich themselves at the detriment of our poor people who barely know what is going on. Our past leadership sold virtually all our state assets to themselves and their cronies for little or nothing, we cannot be so stupid as a people to allow this happen again.
'Cross Riverians have been short-changed on deals like these severally, it wouldn’t be proper to mention them, don’t sit idle and allow this happen again.
'If private sector managers manage better, what stops the state from employing seasoned private sector managers to manage the projects on behalf of the state government?
'Or if the goal is build and privatize, then why not give loans directly to private sector to build so they can also have some operating funds to make the companies functional? Building with billions only to turn around and sell to a politician for little or nothing is outright mischief.
'We started the industrial drive, the world is applauding, Let us commercialize first, if we must privatize then it has to be at market value'.
Princewill Odidi writes from Georgia, Atlanta
