From Judex Okoro, Calabar
The Chairman of the Cross River State Privatization Council, John Odo, has said that the 46 state owned industries will not be sold to cronies.
Odo, who made this known in his office in Calabar on Tuesday while recieving the questionnaire sent out by the council to guage the opinion of the people, maintained that the exercise would transparent and open and so people should not be bothered.
“The essence of the questionnaire is to get the people involved and is the brain child of the governor.
“The privatization law existed before the present administration and the governor is making a difference by involving the people of the state in the process through the questionnaire.
“He relinquished his powers to the people to determine the direction the state should go”, the chairman said.
According to him, there were three modules in the questionnaire for the people to decide and about 46 industries are listed.
He added that the distribution of the questionnaire covered the 18 local government areas of the state, trade associations, professional bodies and the diaspora population through the online platform.
Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Commerce, Rosemary Archibong, commended the council for taking it up to ensure that the right thing is done by exhibiting highest level of transparency.
She called on the people to get involved and take part in the management of these industries.
On his part, Francis Ntamu, the Technical Adviser to the governor on privatization, said privatization is a very sensitive matter.
He said the governor inherited the state privatization law but raised the bar by asking the council to go and guage the pulse of the people through a questionnaire.
The council subsequently set up a seven man technical committee to scrutinize the report.
The technical committee has Josephat Ogar as chairman while Asim Ita serves as secretary with other three members form NUJ and NGO as observers.