The Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond has urged the Senate to mount pressure on the Muhammadu Buhari-led government to implement recommendations in the ‘report of the ad-hoc committee on investigation of the privatisation and commercialisation activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises from 1999 to 2011.”
ASCAB, in a letter to the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan asked the lawmakers to enact an Act to facilitate the establishment of a body that would actualise the reversal of all past privatisations.
“ASCAB recalls that in your capacity as a Senator, you chaired the Senate Ad-hoc Committee that investigated privatisation and commercialisation activities from 1999 to 2011,” the letter signed by the group’s interim chair, Femi Falana (SAN), read:
“The verdict of the Committee that you chaired is that the privatisation exercise in the period – 1999 to 2011 was an abysmal failure in that there were abuses of the prescribed procedure, which facilitated the looting of public assets and transfer of same to private individuals and/or companies.
“The confounding findings of your committee compelled the committee to call for reversal of listed privatisations and the prosecution of identified individuals, among others.
“Coincidentally, you are today the President of the Senate. ASCAB therefore calls on you to use your good offices to do the following:
That the Senate should use legislative tools to put pressure on the Executive to implement the recommendations of the ‘Report of the Ad-hoc Committee on Investigation of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to 2011’.
“That the National Assembly should enact an Act to facilitate the establishment of a body that would actualise the reversal of all past privatisations which your Committee found were characterised by abuses, illegality and fraud, pursuant to Section 16(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, which provides as follows: A body shall be set up by an Act of the National Assembly which shall have power: to review, from time to time, the ownership and control of business enterprises operating in Nigeria and make recommendations to the President on same.
“And to administer any law for the regulation of the ownership and control of such enterprises. In order to remind the Senate of the findings in the Report of the Senate’s Ad-hoc Committee on Investigation of the Privatisation and Commercialisation Activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) from 1999 to 2011, ASCAB has reproduced some of the key findings of your Committee. They are as contained in the enclosed publication entitled, ‘The Case Against Privatisation’.
“ASCAB is committed to partnering with the Senate in popularising the findings of your committee and putting public pressure on the Executive arm of government to implement the recommendations of your committee.”