The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission has advised against any sale of the nation’s equity in the joint venture (JV) partnership with the international oil companies (IOCs) describing the action as unwise in view of the fact that the country in the long run stands to lose rather than gain revenue in the proposed transaction.

The chairman of the commission, Elias Mbam, who gave this advice today in a chat with the press in Abuja, explained that the outright sale of the federation’s equity shares in the JV with IOCs will directly impact negatively on the federation account.

The equity crude from the JV which forms most of the revenue from oil to the federation account will be lost completely.

Furthermore, the equity share is an asset of the federation and not that of the federal government. It is owned by the 3-tiers of government. No tier of government has the right to sell the asset, he enthused.

“It is the considered view of the commission that no part of Nigeria’s JV assets or any strategic national resources for that matter should be sold to any entity to meet short-term financial obligation,” Mbam said.

He advised governments at all levels to take advantage of the shortfall to embrace economic diversification with a view to reducing the over dependence on oil revenue, adding that “because of the volatility of prices and the fact that hydro carbon resources are exhaustible and non-renewable, it has become imperative for Nigeria to develop the non-oil sector to provide the much-needed revenue for infrastructure development and provision of basic services.”