President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has vowed to revive Nigeria’s four refineries, assuring that the facilities will not be allowed to waste away after years of huge investments.
Tinubu made the commitment on Thursday in Abuja when he received the National Executive of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), led by its National President, Comrade Salimon Akanni Oladiti, at the State House.
The President said the challenges facing the refineries would be addressed through detailed research, technical assessments, restructuring and improved leadership rather than short-term interventions.
According to him, the Federal Government will identify the structural, operational, financial and managerial problems affecting the facilities and develop sustainable solutions that will make the refineries productive and profitable.
Tinubu stressed that merely seeing flames and smoke from a refinery does not mean it is functioning effectively, noting that the ultimate goal is for the facilities to operate profitably and deliver the value for which they were built.
“The refineries that you mentioned are going to come back to work; we’re just building a very firm reset and structural reworking of the economy of it,” the President said.
Tinubu said he had accepted responsibility for the assets and liabilities inherited from previous administrations and would work to fix the challenges in the interest of Nigerians.
“I take responsibility for that, and we will do it,” he said, assuring Nigerians that the government’s efforts would ultimately deliver a better Nigeria.
The President also said constitutional issues surrounding the implementation of local government autonomy were being reviewed for possible fine-tuning and appealed to stakeholders for understanding.
He acknowledged the late former NUPENG President, Frank Kokori, for his contribution to Nigeria’s democratic development, recalling their shared struggle for the restoration of democracy.
Tinubu also promised greater inclusion for NUPENG in the implementation of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), while challenging the union to ensure that the benefits of the programme reach ordinary commuters.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, commended NUPENG for acknowledging the positive outcomes of the administration’s reform agenda, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and increased infrastructure investment.
NUPENG President Oladiti praised the President for removing the fuel subsidy, describing the decision as courageous and saying it had helped free resources for infrastructure and other critical sectors.
He also commended the administration’s highway projects, including the 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the 1,068-kilometre Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway.
Oladiti, however, urged Tinubu to sustain efforts to revive the refineries, stressing that functional refineries would strengthen Nigeria’s energy security, reduce dependence on imported petroleum products and create more opportunities for Nigerian workers.
The NUPENG leadership later decorated President Tinubu as the Grand Patron of the union.
