Former president, Olusegun Obasanjo and his then deputy, Atiku Abubakar have been accused of influencing the sale of public companies to their cronies at the ongoing senate investigative public hearing on the privatisation and commercialisation activities of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) since 1999.
On Thursday, Nasir El Rufai, the first director general of BPE said both the former president and his deputy, Atiku Abubakar, made efforts to influence him and the bureau to sell government enterprises to their friends.
Mr El-Rufai said Messrs Obasanjo and Atiku, at different times, contacted him to demand that he give preferential treatment to their friends who were interested in buying on-sale government enterprises.
"The president and I were always quarrelling over issues of privatisation," Mr El-Rufai said. "Each time I told them we have a process ... that they should advice their friends to be the highest bidder." Mr El-Rufai, who later served as minister of the Federal Capital Territory, added that Mr Obasanjo "blocked" the sale of Nigeria Airways because the then aviation minister, Kema Chikwe "was telling him stories." He hailed the conception of the privatisation programme and said his success at the job was based on his determination to protect the bureau from political interference.
But he blamed what he said was the failure of the privatisation programme after he left the bureau on political interference and lack of firm leadership.
He said under his leadership, the BPE handled 33 transactions, closed 23 and that only one of the transactions he handled failed.
He said that before the privatisation programme started, Nigeria was spending N256 billion annually to maintain its over 100 enterprises. He added that between 1970 and 1999, Nigeria spent over $100 billion building companies but got 0.5 percent as return on investment.
He said Mr Obasanjo ignored his recommendations for a successor to appoint Julius Bala, who was investigated for corruption three months before the end of his term at BPE, as his successor. He described his successors as "cranky businessmen" who were not technically sound in privatisation issues.
"I wrote a memo to President Obasanjo through the vice president that my successor should come from within the BPE because we had trained professionals whom we spent millions to train," he said. "I recommended three directors and said if you find them old, I added three deputy directors because I knew their individual capabilities. But he appointed a person that was literally fired by the BPE; the only staff that was investigated for corruption ended up being the new DG." Mr El-Rufai's claims on political interference in the activities of BPE was corroborated by testimony of Christopher Anyanwu, who was also a director general of the bureau. Mr Anyanwu had earlier told the senate ad hoc committee that "some powerful individuals" influenced the decisions of both BPE and Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.
Others have also accused Mr Obasanjo of similar interference.
The current director general of BPE also admitted in an earlier hearing that the sale of Delta Steel Company to Global Infrastructure rather than BUA Groups, the preferred bidders, was a unilateral decision of Mr Obasanjo.
It is however unclear if the investigating committee will invite Mr Obasanjo to testify before it.
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