The 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, expressed his belief that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) should have opted to sell the Port Harcourt refinery to prevent incurring debt. Atiku made these comments in response to NNPCL’s decision to transfer the Port Harcourt refinery’s operations and maintenance to a private firm.
Atiku emphasized the need for the country’s oil firm to provide a clear explanation to Nigerians regarding the benefits of entrusting the refinery to a private entity. He shared his disappointment on a platform (replace X with the actual platform) by stating that all his suggestions had been ignored.
He wrote: “I have always advocated for far-reaching reforms to reposition Nigeria’s oil sector and, indeed, other sectors of our economy. In particular, I had consistently called on the Buhari administration to break its monopoly in all infrastructure sectors, including the refineries, and give investors, both foreign and domestic, a larger role in funding and management.
“My position has been well laid out in The Atiku Plan (2018) and My Covenant With Nigerians (2022). But our suggestions fell on deaf ears. First, they refused to privatize the refineries. They left them idle for years while paying humongous staff salaries.
“Then, they contracted a loan of US$1.5 billion for rehabilitation. Now, the current administration wants to turn the rehabilitated refinery to private concerns for operation and maintenance!
“Without prejudice to the terms of the agreement between the NNPC and the private operators, it would undoubtedly have been better if the NNPC had sold the refinery, pre-rehabilitation, to avoid the burden of debt.
“The @nnpclimited must explain to the satisfaction of Nigerians what benefits its newly discovered approach to privatisation will confer on Nigeria and Nigerians. -AA”
