“Atiku Destroyed NITEL, Delta Steel And My Own Industry Through Privatization” — Oshiomhole

According to Channels Television on Thursday, November 5, 2026, Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo State and sitting senator, accused former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of destroying NITEL, Delta Steel and other industries through privatisation.

Speaking during a live studio interview, Oshiomhole said Atiku, as Chairman of the Privatisation Council under President Olusegun Obasanjo, auctioned public companies to people who had neither the money nor the technical know-how to run them.

He said, “Those workers of NITEL that was auctioned by Atiku to people who had neither the money nor the technical know-how, that led to the closure of NITEL and therefore loss of jobs.”

Oshiomhole said he recently met some of the former NITEL workers in a foreign country, and they lamented how they were forced to leave the company.

He said, “By the way, I met some of them in a foreign country recently, and they told me how they lamented how they had to leave NITEL.”

He listed other industries that suffered the same fate, including the Aluminium Smelter Company and Delta Steel, which he said were privatised and destroyed.

He said, “Those in Delta Steel, that Atiku, as Chairman of Privatization Council… You can name it. All those industries they privatized and destroyed.”

Oshiomhole said his own industry, where he worked as a union leader, was also destroyed during the period Atiku was Vice President.

He said, “And above all, like I said in Ekiti today, I think, who was Vice President with Obasanjo when they destroyed my own industry, where I worked, and I had cause to tell the President that if I had been a full-time union leader, I would have been unemployed by that time.”

According to Oshiomhole, workers who lost their jobs because of those privatisation exercises will not forget what happened to them.

He argued that Atiku cannot now present himself as a friend of labour after presiding over policies that led to mass job losses.

He said the average worker will ask himself whether he can trust a man who destroyed his job to now protect his welfare.

Oshiomhole maintained that the election is about choice, and workers must compare Tinubu’s record with Atiku’s record.

He said the privatisation of NITEL and other companies is part of the record Nigerians must remember ahead of the 2027 election.

Political observers say Oshiomhole’s attack is aimed at reminding workers of Atiku’s past and weakening his support among labour.

For Oshiomhole, however, the message was simple: Atiku destroyed jobs, he did not create them.

He insisted that workers will not vote for the man who destroyed their industries.

“All those industries they privatized and destroyed,” he said, stressing that the pain of job losses from that era is still fresh for many Nigerian families.

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