Former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said the failure of a $1.5bn (£1.2bn) rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery proves his long-standing argument that Nigeria’s state-owned refineries should be privatised.
Mr Atiku was reacting to comments by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), which recently admitted that despite heavy spending, the refinery is not profitable and has been operating at a significant loss.
In a statement shared via his X handle, the former presidential candidate said the admission showed that continued public funding of Nigeria’s refineries was economically unjustifiable.
“After gulping $1.5bn, the NNPCL 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.”
Earlier in the week, NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, disclosed that state-owned refineries were running at what he described as a “monumental loss” to the country.
He said the company had decided to halt operations to prevent further financial damage, explaining that high operational costs and payments to contractors were draining public funds without delivering value.
“A lot of money has been spent and expectations were very high,” Mr Ojulari said. “But when we looked at the numbers, we were just leaking away value.”
Mr Atiku criticised the continued payment of salaries to refinery workers despite the facilities producing no petrol, arguing that such spending does not serve the national interest.
He said decades of turnaround maintenance had consumed billions of dollars without success, exposing deep problems in capacity, technical expertise and financial discipline.
The former vice president also argued that the most recent attempt to revive the refineries was driven more by political pressure than sound economic planning.
“For years, I advanced this patriotic position and was vilified,” he said. “Today, the facts have caught up with the rhetoric.”
Mr Atiku added that Nigeria would have been better off selling the refineries before spending large sums on rehabilitation, warning that further public investment would only increase debt and deepen losses.
