NNPCL’s $1.5bn Refinery Failure Validates My Call For Privatisation — Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s (NNPCL) admission that the $1.5bn rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt Refinery was a waste of scarce resources validated his long-standing call for the privatisation of state-owned refineries.

Atiku made the assertion in a statement shared on his X handle on Sunday, reacting to comments attributed to the state oil company that the Port Harcourt facility remains unprofitable despite the $1.5bn spent on its rehabilitation.

Atiku said the admission, though belated, confirmed that continued public funding of moribund refineries was economically unjustifiable.

“After gulping $1.5bn, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has now admitted that reopening the Port Harcourt Refinery is a waste of scarce resources.

“This belated admission validates my long-held position that Nigeria’s refineries should be privatised,” he said.

He added that it was instructive that the Tinubu administration had finally come to terms with what he described as an inevitable truth, arguing that pouring public funds into non-performing refineries was economically indefensible.

Atiku also criticised what he described as the payment of billions of naira in salaries to facilities that produce no petrol, saying such spending does not serve the national interest.

He recalled that he had consistently advocated the privatisation of the refineries but was previously vilified and accused of plotting to sell public assets to associates.

“For years, I advanced this patriotic position and was vilified and accused of plotting to sell public assets to ‘friends.’ Today, the facts have caught up with the rhetoric,” he said.

According to the former vice president, decades of turnaround maintenance had consumed billions of dollars without yielding results, exposing deficiencies in capacity, technical expertise and financial discipline.

He further argued that the most recent effort to revive the refineries was driven more by political pressure than economic logic, stressing that politics should not replace sound policy.

Atiku said any proposed refinery arrangement, including those involving foreign partners, should be discontinued, as they merely replicate previously failed approaches.

“Nigeria would have been better served by selling the refineries before rehabilitation, thereby avoiding ballooning debt and the steady depreciation of what have effectively become liabilities,” he added.

LEADERSHIP recalls that NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, had disclosed on Wednesday that the state-owned refineries were operating at a “monumental loss” to the country, prompting his leadership team to halt operations to prevent further erosion of value.

“On the refineries, Nigerians were angry. A lot of money has been spent, and expectations were very high. So we were under extreme pressure,” Ojulari said.

He added, “The first thing that became clear, and I want to say this very clearly, is that we were running at a monumental loss to Nigeria. We were just wasting money. I can say that confidently now.

“We were spending a lot of money on operations, a lot of money on contractors. But when you look at the net, we were just leaking away value.”