Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian Military Head of state (1976-1979) and 8-year democratic elected President (1999-2007) spoke on the dilapidating state of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and how pathetic it has been regarding its zero functionality. His statement has raised many concerns, leaving many Nigerians to ponder and drift toward possible poor accountability, mismanagement of funds, falsification of records, and other corrupt practices.
The former military general spoke on the challenges encountered with the three major refineries (Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt) and how Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (the successor and former President) rejected a $750m deal with business tycoon Aliko Dangote in 2007 to run the affairs of the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries.
Rejecting Dangote’s offer was triggered by former NNPC management, who, despite being fully aware of their incapacity, maintained that they could operate the 3 refineries across the nation.
The hitherto existence of the government firm has not strongly produced any smooth and long-lasting solution to refining crude oil/petroleum products, hence the option to export the crude oil to offshore countries, buy the refined products, and import them back to the country; a practice that has been responsible for the high cost of living.
Keywords of the Former Head of State
“When I was President, I wanted to do something about the three refineries we have: Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna. Aliko got a team together after I asked Shell to come and run it for us. And Shell said they wouldn’t. I said, please come and take equity, they said no. I said okay, don’t take equity, come and run it, they said no.
“Later on, I called them. I called the boss of Shell to come and tell me what the problem was and he gave me four or five reasons. He said, first of all, they make a major profit from upstream, not from downstream. He said they run downstream just to keep their head above water.
“Two, our refineries were too small: 60,000 barrels, 100,000 barrels, and I think 120,000 barrels. He said that at that time, the average refinery was going for 250,000 barrels.
“Three, he said our refineries were not well maintained. Fourth, he said that there was too much corruption around the activities of our refinery and they would not want to get involved in that.”
Meanwhile, NNPCL spokesperson Femi Soneye reacted to the former president’s statement and debunked the claim of poor growth and wastage of funds as made by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. A quick response from Soneye after the claim was:
“We extend an open invitation to President Obasanjo for a tour of the rehabilitated refineries to witness firsthand the progress made under the new NNPC Limited.”
It’s very pathetic to deduce that after the emergence of Dangote’s refinery, the NNPCL has since then been trying to cover up on its longstanding pretense of being up and running. It made every effort to cause frustration to the privately owned refinery, and subsequently made a claim the Port Harcourt refinery has fully started the refining of crude oil(November, 2024); a statement that was later proven to be void.
