By Suleiman Umaru
Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President , who had contested the 2019, Presidential election the ticket of the Opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and described in political circles as an apostle of privatization is not happy with Presiden Muhammadu, a retired army General, of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC.
Atiku’s source of unhappinss with the Katsina state born Nigerian President was because of his concluded arrangement to fix the natin’s poorly performing three refineries located in the oil cities of PortHarcourt, Warri and Kaduna, the political Headquarters of the northern elite in the north west Nigeria. The Nigerian’s president to rehabilitate the ailing refineries already have the support of the Feral Executive Council , FEC, members who had approved $1.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the 150,000b/d, PortHarcourt Refinery, in south –south Nigeria to test the waters .
An aggrieved Atiku, who could not hide his feelings had said that there was no basis for the government to contemplate with the idea of rehabilitating the PortHarcourt refinery when the 2023, general elections, is barely 44 months ahead describing it as’’ a waste of resources’’, especially now that the nation’s economy is gasping for breath.
Hear him: to budget the sum of $1.5billion for the turn- around Maintenance, TAM, of the PortHarcourt refinery would appear to be unwise use of the nation’s scarce foreign exchange at this critical time for a multiplicity of reasons.
The former who had never been in support of the government running a business because of abuse had supervised the privatization of government owned Companies , via the Bureau of Public Enterprises , BPE, as Vice President, had suggested that that ‘’the best course of action for the Buhari Administration would have been to follow the foot step of the PDP government and privatize the refineries for more effective and efficient management.
Recall that the former Vice President may have lost the 2019, Presidental election to Buhari because he had said that he would’’make his friends rich, privatize the PortHarcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries.
It was said to have been turned into a Campaign issue by the APC, which saw it as opportunity to nail him of plotting to sell the public assets to his friends. The message may have sank deep into the heart of Nigerians who had used it to vote against him. This may informed why he lost the 2019, Presidential election to the retired army General and former military Head of State, who had contested the country’s Presidential election four times but lost all. He lost to Olusegun Obasanjo, Late Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan, all former Presidents, on the ticket of the Opposition PDP.
It is not surprising why the Adamawa state born politician in north east Nigeria, who may still be nursing the ambition to contest the 2023, Presidential election, on the ticket of the PDP, has turned the approved $1.5 billion by the FEC, for the rehabilitation of the PortHarcourt refinery into a political issue. He had said the country’s local and foreign debt which was N12 trillion in 2015 had climbed to about N33 trillion under the APC government over the last five years while government is planning to spend $1.5 billion on the rehabilitation of the PortHarcourt refinery, which may be borrowed .
He had explained that the rehabilitation of the PortHarcourt refinery with the FEC, Approved $1.5 billion would put the country into more debts stressing that Shell Petroleum Development, SPDC, an International Oil Company, last year sold its Martinez refinery in Californian, described as the home of Holywood, actors and acresses in he the North American Continent country of the United States, US, for $1.2 billion. The Martinez refinery, he dislosed was the same size with the PortHarcourt refinery. This may have given the Nigerian former Vice President, an ammunition to describe the $1.5 billion budgeted for the TAM, of the PortHarcourt refinery as ‘’.too prohibitive’’.
He had alluded to the fact that the British Oil giant had sold the Martinez refinery which is even more profitable than the PortHarcourt refinery and wondered why the government would be wasting such a huge amount of money t to repair a refinery that had never been profitable even since it was built till date, but running from one problem to the other., and thus performing below expectation.
His major worry over the $1.5 billion approved by the FEC, for the rehabilitation of the Oil City of PortHarcourt refinery was the fact that there was no public tender before the cost was approved. He averred that because due intelligence was not carried out before the government came out with the bogus amount to rehabilitate the refinery, the country ay ‘’certainly not be getting the value for the money, not by a long stretch’’.
Speaking as a former top government official, he had said that ‘’there is no way the country could make any economic progress if the Nigerian government continue to fund inefficiency’’, which he had likened the PortHarcourt, Warri and Kadun refineries to be. He stressed that the country is going too deep into debt trap for unnecessarily ‘’overpriced projects’’.
Indeed,Atiku may not be the only one who may be worried about the government planned fixing of the old rrefineries. Victor Eromosele, a one-time , Group Finance Manger, Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, Company, had reportedly said that previous governments had made such promises and even set target of completion of the rehabilitation of the ailing refineries but failed to do so.
He had made it clear to those that cares to listen that , ‘’rehabilitating the poorly performing refineries may be a good strategy on paper but ‘’it doesn’t make any economic sense fixing them’’, stating that the only way to stop the importation of the fuel cargoes into the country and end the alleged $3.5billionspent annually on fuel subsidy which had been the case over the last 12 years , according to government records is ‘’to rebuild the refineries from the start’’.
Zainab Ahmed, the minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, may have sgocked Nigerians when she opined that until the three poorly performing refineries are fixed, the yearly subsidy on fuel imports would continue to be an additional cost on the books of the state owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, that imports most of the Nigeria Premium Motor Spirit, popular, petrol needs of the country.
Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director, of the Nigerian Oil behemoth had said that the Corporation is determined on ending the fuel subsidy by fixing the refineries to start processing its normal 445,000b/d, Crude allocation. This is an indication that the Corporation and the Nigerian President who is overseeing the ministry of Petroleum Resources are still on the same page to fix the Non-performing refineries.
He may have alluded to the fact that the country has not been able to fix the three ailing Nigerian refineries after about 20 years of trying to do so due to what he had described ‘’as a strategy problem as they never knew what to do with the refineries’’. The Borno state born Bureaucrat had said that the Corporation never get the right advisory services and the right strategy to adopt in fixing the refineries or to go ahead with the building the proposed 200,00b/d Condensate refinery.
Many believe that if the government had not introduced politics into the rehabilitation of the country’s three refineries with a processing capacity of 445,000b/d, over the years, the 650,000b/d, Ibeju Lekki, refinery project owned by Aliko Dangote, one of the Nigerian leading Industrialists, the problem of the country not being self-sufficient in Petroleum Products production would have been a thing of the past.
