Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has questioned the rationale behind the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL)’s privatisation of oil refineries in the country post-rehabilitation.
Atiku in a statement on Tuesday also criticized the former President, Muhammadu Buhari’s administration for not privatising Nigeria’s idle oil refineries earlier.
The presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2023 election also expressed concern over the recent $1.5 billion rehabilitation.
“I have always advocated for far-reaching reforms to reposition Nigeria’s oil sector and, indeed, other sectors of our economy,” Atiku posted on X.
“In particular, I had consistently called on 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.
“My position has been well laid out in The Atiku Plan (2018) and My Covenant With Nigerians (2022) but our suggestions fell on deaf ears.
“First, they refused to privatize the refineries. They left them idle for years while paying humongous staff salaries. Then, they contracted a loan of US$1.5 billion for rehabilitation.”
He added that without prejudice to the terms of the agreement between the NNPCL and the private operators, it would undoubtedly have been better if the NNPCL had sold the refinery, pre-rehabilitation, to avoid the burden of debt.
He has therefore called on the NNPCL to explain to the satisfaction of Nigerians what benefits its newly discovered approach to privatisation will confer on the country and its citizens.
