After $18bn Spent Tinubu Says Moribund Refineries Will Be Repaired

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has declared that the government-owned refineries will be repaired and brought back into operation, saying the government is also working to ensure that they become profitable when they eventually resume production.
The President spoke on Thursday when the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, paid him a visit at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the nation’s capital.
There are four government-owned refineries in the country, located in Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri. The facilities have become moribund after many years of abandonment, mismanagement and corruption in the oil and gas sector.
Not a few Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, have given up hope that the refineries can return to operation after billions of dollars were spent on their rehabilitation and turnaround maintenance.
Over the past two decades, successive Nigerian administrations have spent an estimated $18 billion on the rehabilitation of the four refineries, according to checks, without anything tangible to show for the expenditure.
Speaking on Thursday, President Tinubu said the refineries would be fixed and brought back into operation when the economy could afford it, adding that successive administrations had done their best to revive the facilities without success.
Tinubu said: “The refineries that you mentioned are going to come back to work.
“I’m not a man who will go there, come back and say everything is fine because I’ve accepted the assets and liabilities of my predecessors.
“No matter what has happened in the years past, it’s my responsibility now as the President to fix it, make it work for the largest common value of our population. I take responsibility for that, and I’m going to do it.”