Assets sale mere speculations says Lai Mohammed

The Federal Government has described as “mere “speculations”, media re­ports that it has decided to sell some national assets in order to get the country out of the pre­sent recession.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Moham­med, on Wednesday told State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by Pres­ident Muhammadu Buhari, that despite the pronouncements of some government agencies, “no final decision has been taken on the proposal.”

The Senate had on Tuesday passed a resolution rejecting the sale of Nigeria Liquefied Natu­ral Gas (NLNG) plant and sim­ilar state-owned assets, which was first raised by Africa’s richest man and business mogul, Aliko Dangote and echoed by Senate President, Bukola Saraki.
Mohammed was also re­minded that the recommen­dation for the sale of the assets was similarly canvassed at a re­cent cabinet retreat on the econ­omy by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, and endorsed by the National Economic Council (NEC) at its meeting last week.
The NEC is chaired by the Vice President and its members comprise state governors, the Central Bank Governor, Minis­ter of Finance, and the Attorney-General of the Federation.
Mohammed countered this, explaining that retreat rec­ommendations and consequent suggestion or endorsement by NEC do not amount to a final decision by the FEC, govern­ment’s highest decision-making organ, which he said had not even discussed it.
He was emphatic that “very soon”, government would inform Nigerians on its decision on the issue of assets sale, which some economists, including a former CBN governor, Chukwuma Soludo, have counselled against.
According to Lai Moham­med, “The government is still working on the most compre­hensive manner to reflate the economy and the government will make its position known very soon.
“What the government will do is to reflate the economy, eve­rything you have heard so far is just suggestion.
“Until the government makes its position known, all these assets sale, assets leasing or whatever being bandied about are nothing but speculations.
“The government is yet to come out with its position on how to bail out the economy and it will take that position very soon.
“NEC will recommend but it is the Federal Executive Council that will decide and what we de­cide will be the position of gov­ernment.”
Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, who briefed the press alongside Lai Moham­med, further disclosed that the FEC approved three memoranda concerning a new National Wa­ter Policy, National Irrigation Policy and draft National Water Resources Bill.
The policies and bill if en­acted into law, are expected to consolidate and streamline ex­isting laws on the nation’s water resources, and open the way for private sector players to invest in the water sector.
His words: “Nigeria has the potential of 3.4 million hectares of land for irrigation and we have only been able to reach only about 130,000 that has been de­veloped formally and only about 70,000 is being utilised.
“So there is a huge gap and we feel that introducing this pol­icy will help us to work along at federal and at regional level with the states so that we will have all encompassing policy that will help our agriculture agenda for now.”