Am going
to dispense with political correctness. Delta lines should long have been sold.
It was a correct decision to sell it. Delta line is a big drain pipe. It's a
good Public Relation if you can fund it but if you can't, Delta line is a dead
asset. So long as it was managed by civil servants and as political patronage
by politicians, Deltans are better off without it in the present form.
The sell
price might be an issue but having not seen the valuation report, it's hard to say much. Then the issue of due process in terms of tendering process,
was it a competitive bid or was it single sourced? Transperancy is overriding
in view of emotional and political ramifications of Delta lines.
Government should provide more details. Governor Uduaghan
experimented a PPP arrangement with Agofure motors. It worked. Returns/revenue
came to coffers of government by Agofure motors wing of Delta Lines, meanwhile
Government run Delta Lines never returned a dime. Its vehicles were ran aground.
I think if we were paying attention that was when Delta Lines should have been
sold. So much for government running transport business.
From mid-1980's as Nigeria embraced neo-liberalism the
consensus is government has no business running business (some might disagree
and can marshall strong points for it. In fact, some schools of thought argue
that privatization is a subsidy to the rich, because the sell price are
usually not market driven and those assets end up being stripped. Valid point!)
hence privatization policy of govt since then.
In Delta, a lot of government assets have been privatized,
it is just that some programmes have more significant social impact on the poor
and therefore deserves some kind of subsidy like transportation but sadly that
has still not worked in the past.
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