‘Should have been sold before rehabilitation’ — Atiku asks NNPC to discontinue proposed refinery deal

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has asked the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to discontinue any proposed deal for its refineries.

On November 24, 2025, NNPC announced plans to partner with private refinery operators to repair and maintain its refineries, leveraging their technical expertise.

NNPC said agreements will be finalised in mid-2026.

On February 4, Bayo Ojulari, the group chief executive officer (CEO) of NNPC, said the company is discussing a potential partnership with a Chinese firm over one of the state-owned refineries.

However, in a statement on Sunday, Abubakar said any deal, including with foreign partners, repeats failed models.

“The latest push to “revive” these refineries was driven by political pressure, not economic sense. Politics must never substitute for sound, transformative policy,” he said.

“Accordingly, any proposed refinery deal, including with foreign partners, should be discontinued, as it merely repeats failed models.

“Nigeria would have been better served by selling the refineries pre-rehabilitation to avoid ballooning debt and the steady depreciation of what have effectively become liabilities.”

Abubakar said when he previously suggested the idea that the refineries should be sold, he was accused of plotting to sell the national assets to his “friends,” but now, the administration of President Bola Tinubu have embraced the idea.

“After gulping $1.5bn, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has now admitted that reopening the Port Harcourt Refinery is a waste of scarce resources. This belated admission validates my long-held position that Nigeria’s refineries should be privatised,” the former vice president said.

“It is instructive that the Tinubu administration has finally come to terms with an inevitable truth: pouring public funds into moribund refineries is economically indefensible. Paying billions in salaries to facilities that produce not a single litre of petrol does not serve the national interest.

“For years, I advanced this patriotic position and was vilified and accused of plotting to sell public assets to “friends.”

“Today, the facts have caught up with the rhetoric. Decades of so-called turnaround maintenance have swallowed billions of dollars with nothing to show for it, exposing deep deficits in capacity, technical know-how, and financial discipline.”

In July 2025, Ojulari said it is becoming a “bit more” complicated to revamp state-owned refineries.

NNPC had said it spent N100 billion on the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries in 2021. (The cable)