‘$1.5bn down the drain’: Atiku calls for privatisation of refineries

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has criticised the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) over its handling of the Port Harcourt Refinery, describing the decision to reopen the facility as “a waste of scarce resources” after about $1.5 billion had reportedly been spent on it.

In a statement posted on his official Facebook page, Atiku said NNPCL’s admission validated his long-standing position that Nigeria’s refineries should be privatised.

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

He faulted the continued injection of public funds into refineries that are not producing fuel, describing such spending as economically indefensible.

“It is instructive that the Tinubu administration has finally come to terms with an inevitable truth: pouring public funds into moribund refineries is economically indefensible,” Atiku said. “Paying billions in salaries to facilities that produce not a single litre of petrol does not serve the national interest,” he also stated.

The former vice president recalled that he had advanced the privatisation argument for years but was criticised and accused of attempting 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’,” he said, adding that “today, the facts have caught up with the rhetoric”.

Atiku also criticised repeated turnaround maintenance efforts on the country’s refineries, noting that billions of dollars had been spent without tangible results.

“Decades of so-called turnaround maintenance have swallowed billions of dollars with nothing to show for it, exposing deep deficits in capacity, technical know-how, and financial discipline,” he stated.

He argued that the latest attempt to revive the refineries was driven more by political considerations than economic logic.

“The latest push to ‘revive’ these refineries was driven by political pressure, not economic sense,” Atiku said. “Politics must never substitute for sound, transformative policy.”

He therefore called for the discontinuation of any proposed refinery arrangements, including partnerships with foreign firms, warning that such deals merely repeat past failures.

“Accordingly, any proposed refinery deal, including with foreign partners, should be discontinued, as it merely repeats failed models,” he said.

Atiku concluded that Nigeria would have been better served if the refineries had been sold before rehabilitation efforts began, in order to avoid rising debt and continued asset depreciation.

“Nigeria would have been better served by selling the refineries pre-rehabilitation to avoid ballooning debt and the steady depreciation of what have effectively become liabilities,” he added.