Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, presidential candidate, has said that he was denigrated by the ruling All Progressives Party, APC, for suggesting that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPC, be reformed.

Recall that the new NNPC Ltd. was officially unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Tuesday as a commercial venture.

The transition is in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021, and has transformed the NNPC from a corporation into a limited liability company, incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).

Reacting, Atiku said the transitioning was a step in the right direction.

I had in 2018 made public my plans to reform the NNPC to make it more profitable, transparent, and efficient. The APC-led government denigrated me for my patriotic vision. But today, I am happy to note that the same government has taken a tentative step along the lines of the suggestions that I had made. It is a step in the right direction, but we are still far from what I had envisaged.

”I hope I’ll have the opportunity to complete the process of turning the NNPC into a genuinely world-class company in the mould of NLNG, Aramco of Saudi Arabia, and Petrobras of Brazil, where Nigerians and institutions will invest in. ” he wrote on Twitter.