Post by omohayek on Feb 17, 2016 22:37:49 GMT
Some very discouraging news, courtesy of Punch:
Just look at the arrant nonsense highlighted above. "National pride" kini??? "National treasure" what??? If Adebayo Shittu had deliberately set out to prove that not all Yoruba politicians have the slightest clue what they're doing, he couldn't have done a better job. Oil prices are in the doldrums, the FG budget deficit is gigantic, and yet Shittu thinks this is the time to be blowing hot air about "national pride" over a business most Western governments are actually getting out of? Talk about a misplaced sense of priorities!
There is no nice way of putting this - Adebayo Shittu is an idiot.
The Federal Government will not continue with the plan to privatise the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited, the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has said.
Shittu, who spoke to journalists when he inspected the facilities of the company in Abuja on Tuesday, said any plan to sell the company and its facilities was an attempt to short-change Nigerians.
Towards the end of the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan, NigComSat was slated for sale, leading to a protest by workers of the organisation against the planned privatisation exercise.
Shittu said instead of selling NigComSat, the present administration would borrow money to increase the fleet of satellites available to the company so that its customers could be sure that they were patronising a solid satellite operator.
He said, “The private sector itself has the freedom to put resources together and establish satellites if they feel they need them. This is one national treasure, which I don’t believe must be seeded to the private sector.
“We as Nigeria must have something we can collectively call our own; something that must remain our national pride. So, for anybody to want to sell this national pride is a mere attempt to short-change Nigeria and all Nigerians.
“So, as long as I am Minister of Communications, I will never be party to any such unholy sale, because it does not protect Nigeria’s best national interest.”
Shittu, who spoke to journalists when he inspected the facilities of the company in Abuja on Tuesday, said any plan to sell the company and its facilities was an attempt to short-change Nigerians.
Towards the end of the tenure of former President Goodluck Jonathan, NigComSat was slated for sale, leading to a protest by workers of the organisation against the planned privatisation exercise.
Shittu said instead of selling NigComSat, the present administration would borrow money to increase the fleet of satellites available to the company so that its customers could be sure that they were patronising a solid satellite operator.
He said, “The private sector itself has the freedom to put resources together and establish satellites if they feel they need them. This is one national treasure, which I don’t believe must be seeded to the private sector.
“We as Nigeria must have something we can collectively call our own; something that must remain our national pride. So, for anybody to want to sell this national pride is a mere attempt to short-change Nigeria and all Nigerians.
“So, as long as I am Minister of Communications, I will never be party to any such unholy sale, because it does not protect Nigeria’s best national interest.”
There is no nice way of putting this - Adebayo Shittu is an idiot.
