Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) should have privatised the Port Harcourt refinery before rehabilitating it.
He said this in a Facebook post while reacting to a news report that the NNPCL has concluded plans to hand over the government refinery to private operators.
According to the report, the national oil company said it was seeking to engage reputable and credible operations and maintenance companies to operate and maintain the Port Harcourt Refining Company.
This, it said, was “to ensure reliability and sustainability towards meeting the nation’s fuel supply and energy security obligations.”
Reacting, Atiku berated the immediate-past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for not privatising the moribund refineries earlier.
“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 NNPC must explain to the satisfaction of Nigerians what benefits its newly discovered approach to privatisation will confer on Nigeria and Nigerians,” Atiku said.