By Charles Maduka
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to discontinue any proposed partnership arrangement involving the country’s refineries.
Abubakar’s position follows an announcement by NNPC on November 24, 2025, that it planned to collaborate with private refinery operators to repair and maintain its facilities, citing the need to leverage external technical expertise. The company had said the agreements were expected to be finalised by mid-2026.
Earlier this month, NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, disclosed that discussions were ongoing with a Chinese firm over a potential partnership involving one of the state-owned refineries.
In a statement issued on Sunday, Abubakar argued that entering into such deals, including those involving foreign partners, would amount to recycling approaches that have failed in the past.
He said the renewed effort to revive the refineries was driven more by political considerations than economic logic, stressing that politics should not replace sound and transformative policy decisions.
According to him, Nigeria would have been better served if the refineries had been sold before rehabilitation, noting that continued public spending has only increased debt while the facilities have steadily lost value and become liabilities.
Abubakar recalled that when he previously advocated the sale of the refineries, he was accused of attempting to sell national assets to associates, adding that the current administration has now effectively adopted the same position.
He said after spending about $1.5 billion, NNPC has admitted that reopening the Port Harcourt Refinery is a poor use of limited resources, a development he described as validation of his long-standing call for privatisation of the refineries.
The former vice-president stated that the Tinubu administration has come to terms with what he described as an unavoidable reality, insisting that continued investment of public funds in non-performing refineries cannot be justified.
He added that paying salaries running into billions of naira for facilities that produce no fuel does not serve the national interest, pointing out that decades of turnaround maintenance have consumed huge sums without tangible results.
Abubakar also noted that the repeated failures expose deep weaknesses in technical capacity, financial discipline and overall management of the refineries.
In July 2025, Ojulari had acknowledged that revamping the state-owned refineries was becoming increasingly complicated, while NNPC previously disclosed that about N100 billion was spent on refinery rehabilitation in 2021.
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