The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has faulted successive administrations since 1999 for selling off critical national assets under the guise of privatization, describing the policy as a major cause of Nigeria’s current infrastructure crisis.
Speaking on the issue, Adebayo said the wholesale sale of government enterprises between 1999 and now has crippled key sectors of the economy.
He particularly blamed the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999–2007) for selling strategic public assets such as the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON), and Nigerian Hotels Limited, among others.
According to him, rather than privatizing government enterprises, the focus should have been on liberalizing the industries to allow competition and efficiency.
“The ripple effects of that singular policy have been devastating — massive infrastructure decay, rising unemployment, and a shortage of training opportunities,” Adebayo lamented.
“In those days, when you finished school, you could join NEPA and they would train you. Many of the country’s top engineers today came through NEPA. But now, the public works departments are gone. Even simple road projects that could be handled locally are handed to foreign contractors,” he said.
Adebayo criticized the decay of government capacity in infrastructure delivery, claiming he personally owns more equipment than some state ministries of works.
“I have more caterpillars and construction tools in my compound than what they have in the works department in Akure, Ondo State. So, what have we really gained from privatization?” he asked.
The SDP chieftain also faulted the privatization of NITEL, noting that despite the influx of private telecom companies, the country still experiences connectivity issues because most carriers rely on NITEL’s old exchange systems.
“We still have a telecommunication problem because the private operators depend on NITEL’s backbone. They are unwilling to invest in nationwide broadband infrastructure,” he said.
On the power sector, Adebayo argued that privatization has failed to deliver stable electricity, as most operators lack the technical capacity and rely on consumers to provide basic infrastructure such as transformers.
“What the government should have done was to open up the sectors, not sell the enterprises. Privatization of government enterprises is wrong. What you privatize is the industry, not the enterprise,” he maintained.
Adebayo added that the SDP has a better plan to revive Nigeria’s critical sectors by empowering a new generation of professionals to manage public enterprises and build industries from them.
