Splitting the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) instead of scrapping it would make the corporation more effective and functional, some stakeholders have observed.

The immediate past Deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (downstream), Hon. Moshood Mustapha and Western Zone Chairman of Independent Petroleum Marketers' Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Alhaji Debo Ahmed spoke in separate interviews in Ilorin, Kwara State.

Hon. Mustapha noted that the structure of NNPC as an institution was not giving Nigerians the desired result.

He said, "I don't believe that we should scrap the NNPC, we should unbundle it. NNPC is just an institution but the way it is structured, it is not giving Nigerians the desired result of what we expect. We have the Petro Brass in Brazil, we have different kinds of regulators in oil and gas in different countries, we have it in UAE in Dubai, but when you see the way they operate, they operate in such a way that they allow competition to revolve round the oil and gas.

So there won't be shortchange but in a situation where the regulator is equally a player, there would be problem. And that is the reason why PIB is very important".

On his part, IPMAN boss said the plan by President Muhammadu Buhari to split the NNPC into two was a welcome development.

"NNPC is an octopus. They have to split it to work effectively. The NNPC is doing everything both off-shore, on-shore, upstream and downstream and it is under only one person, group managing director. If NNPC is being managed by a private organization it won't be like this; actually there will be public motive.

"The bigness of this corporation makes taking of decision to become so slow and as such if it is being split into two it will work efficiently. One will be doing other logistics and the other basically for operations. If the organization is split into two they will be effective, efficient and they will respond to issues", he said.