President Bola Tinubu has insisted that Nigeria’s Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries will return to operation despite doubts raised by former President Olusegun Obasanjo over their viability.
Tinubu spoke on Thursday when he received the Executive President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Salimon Oladiti, and other union members at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. The President said his administration was working to ensure that the refineries become functional and profitable, rather than simply restarting them.
“The refineries you mentioned are going to come back to work. We’re just building a very firm research and structural reworking of the economy of it. Ordinary flame and smoke of a refinery doesn’t mean it’s working, until it’s profitable and yields the value for which it is built,” Tinubu said.
He also accepted responsibility for the facilities, saying he would focus on fixing the problems inherited from previous administrations.
“I take responsibility for that, and I’m going to do it,” he stated.
Obasanjo questions refinery revival
Tinubu’s position contrasts with Obasanjo’s long-standing criticism of government ownership and management of the refineries. The former President recently reiterated his view that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited cannot successfully run the facilities. He instead advocated greater private-sector involvement through public-private partnerships.
Obasanjo recalled that his administration approached Shell to take a 10 per cent equity stake and manage the refineries. According to him, the oil major rejected both proposals. He said Shell cited the small size of the plants, poor maintenance and corruption as reasons for its reluctance to operate them.
Obasanjo also recalled that Aliko Dangote offered $750m for a 51 per cent stake in two of the refineries while he was President. The transaction was later reversed under the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. He further claimed that the government had spent about $16bn on refinery rehabilitation over the years.
Dangote also raises concerns
Dangote said his group acquired the refineries in January 2007 but returned them to the government after a change of administration. He later built his own refinery after the transaction was reversed. The businessman also criticised repeated turnaround maintenance on the old plants, comparing the process to upgrading a decades-old vehicle with modern technology. The debate, therefore, goes beyond whether the refineries can restart. Tinubu believes they can become commercially viable, while Obasanjo and other critics favour private-sector management or privatisation.
Expert calls for privatisation
Energy expert Dan Kunle has urged Tinubu to stop spending public funds on the old refineries and consider privatising them. Kunle argued that successive administrations had promised to revive the facilities without achieving sustained and profitable operations. He also questioned the information being provided to the President by those managing the refineries, suggesting that some of it could be influenced by self-interest.
According to Kunle, the government should instead invest in sectors such as agriculture, gas infrastructure and the upstream oil industry. He challenged the administration to build a new refinery alongside one of the existing plants and operate both facilities. Such a comparison, he argued, would show the difference in their operational and financial performance.
Port Harcourt refinery gets local backing
Despite the criticism, the Port Harcourt Refinery Host Community Bulk Petroleum Retailers Association has backed the government’s plan. The association said it would work towards doubling the votes Tinubu received in Rivers State in the last presidential election if the refinery becomes fully operational before the next election. HOSCOM said the revival could create jobs, support businesses and improve energy security in the state. It estimated that more than 200,000 people depend directly or indirectly on the refinery and related economic activities.
The association also backed the proposed technical partnership between NNPC and Chinese firms. It called for reliable crude supply, proper maintenance and effective management of the facility. For Tinubu, the major test will now be turning his promise into sustained refining operations that can generate value for the country.
Read also: Tinubu assures Warri, Port Harcourt refineries will resume operations
