Former vice president and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 elections, Atiku Abubakar, has expressed his disapproval of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) plan to privatise the Port Harcourt refinery after spending $1.5 billion on its rehabilitation.
In a tweet posted on his X page on Tuesday, Atiku Abubakar said he had always advocated for far-reaching reforms to reposition Nigeria’s oil sector and other sectors of the economy, and urged 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.
He said his position had been well laid out in his policy documents, The Atiku Plan (2018) and “My Covenant” With Nigerians (2022), but his suggestions were ignored by the government.
Atiku lamented that the government had refused to privatise the refineries, which had been idle for years, and instead contracted a loan of $1.5 billion for their rehabilitation.
He however claimed that the current administration’s decision to turn the rehabilitated refinery to private concerns for operation and maintenance was questionable and would saddle the country with more debt.
He challenged the NNPC to explain to Nigerians what benefits its newly discovered approach to privatisation would confer on the country and its people.
The NNPC had announced in December 2023 that it had completed the mechanical completion of the 60,000 barrels per day part of the 210,000-capacity Port Harcourt refinery, and that it was seeking reputable and credible companies to operate and maintain the refinery.
The NNPC said the “operate and maintain” model was one of the key requirements by the lender for the Port Harcourt project, which cost about $1.5 billion and covered engineering, procurement, construction, installation, and commissioning phases.
The Port Harcourt refinery, which was established in 1965, is one of the four refineries owned by the NNPC, along with the Warri and Kaduna refineries, which are also undergoing rehabilitation.
The NNPC’s plan to privatise the Port Harcourt refinery has been met with mixed reactions from various stakeholders, including experts, civil society groups, and politicians.
Some have argued that the plan is a waste of public funds and a betrayal of the public trust, while others have supported it as a necessary step to revive the ailing oil sector and boost the economy.