Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) nominee for president, met with a few business executives on Saturday at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos’ Victoria Island under the auspices of the Business Dialogue Stakeholders Forum.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Jim Ovia, Femi Otedola, Tony Elumelu, Herbert Wigwe, Oba Otudeko, Aig-Imoukhuede, and Muhammad Hayatudeen are just a few of the business executives that Atiku spoke with.
If elected president in 2023, Atiku has pledged to pursue oil thieves and their accomplices, saying that they will all face justice regardless of their position in the government. He has also promised to seize all oil blocks given to Nigerians who have not made them operational in the interest of the country’s development.
“We’ll take the oil blocks we’ve given you away and give them to somebody who will develop them if you don’t develop them. We will also compile the identities of those responsible for oil theft, publish them, and bring legal action against them,” he added.
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Atiku meets with Dangote, Ovia, and other business figures regarding his plans to expand the oil and gas industry, Atiku pointed out that the oil production quota was set to climb to four million barrels per day during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
When he is elected to government the next year, he said, the plan would be revived and sustained beyond the predicted amount, adding that to accomplish this successfully, the Petroleum Industry Act and any other enabling laws would be invoked.
“When we were in government, we started this process. However, there were hiccups. We were unable to pass the legislation to encourage IOCs to partake in the sector. We will go back to where we started,” he said.
In order to improve the efficiency of the facilities, Atiku reaffirmed his commitment to privatising the refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri. He also said that under his leadership, the Brass and Olokola LNG projects, which were started by the Obasanjo administration, would receive more attention.
The former vice president has pledged to focus on the N20 trillion way-and-means balance, FOREX, monetary policy, and other budgetary difficulties the nation is now facing.
He emphasised that he would support local production and “not control of public expenditure” but stated that output would be stopped in order to stabilise the FOREX regime flaws in oil.
“I believe that we should have a FOREX policy that allows a convergence. I don’t believe in a multiple FOREX policy that currently applies.
“Dollarisation or otherwise of the Nigerian economy depends on the strength or weakness of our economy. If we strengthen our economy, you don’t need the dollar. The naira can be strengthened by the number of jobs created and exports.”
