While the commercialisation of the perennially loss-making corporation is desirable and overdue, the process must be done in a way that does not transfer all its juicy assets to a private company and leave the government with legacy liabilities of the NNPC. The current provisions on this must be vetted to forestall this happening.
I will end this piece by encouraging more Nigerians from all walks of life to take a more active role in lawmaking, especially when it concerns crucial bills like this. It is our collective duty, not just the job of our paid lawmakers, to make sure our interests are protected always. We, the citizens, have made the mistake of not scrutinising a bill properly until it was passed into law in the past, and by then it was already too late. We can’t afford that mistake with the new PIB.