You never wanted any state-owned refineries to work – Group to Obasanjo

The Movement for Anti-Corruption, Integrity, and Transparency Initiative, has condemned the recent comment by former President Olusegun Obasanjo against state-owned refineries.

Newspot reports that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had revealed how the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, declined a $750m offer by billionaire business tycoon, Aliko Dangote, to manage the Port Harcourt & Kaduna refineries back in 2007.

Obasanjo made this revelation during an exclusive interview with Channels Television.

According to the ex-president, the NNPC knew that it did not have the capacity to run the national refineries yet rejected Dangote’s offer.

Again, Obasanjo in a separate statement had described an open invitation by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to tour the newly revived Port Harcourt and Warri Refineries as disrespectful.

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This was following Newspot earlier report that NNPCL had invited the ex-president to the revamped facilities after he accused the state-owned oil firm of rejecting Aliko Dangote’s $750 million to manage Port Harcourt Refinery.

But in a statement jointly signed by its National President, Comrade Goodway Jackson, and the Secretary General, Comrade Mohammed Kuda, the group said with the recent outburst by the former president, he has revealed himself as someone who does not want to see the state-owned refineries work.

According to the statement, “To many, former President Obasanjo’s recent outburst on State Refineries may not, after all, be because he means well for the well-being of the nation’s refineries but due to an age-long grudge he holds against NNPCL soon after he left office as president.”

“It is due to the personal vendetta he holds against the State Refineries because after he (Obasanjo) left office, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who took over from him, reversed the sale of the Port Harcourt Refinery to a consortium, having seen that its sale was shrouded in controversy.

“Even when the two strong trade unions within the oil industry, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, vehemently rejected and kicked against the privatisation of the two refineries on the grounds of conflict of interest and lack of due process, a desperate Obasanjo didn’t stop his selfish move.

“Those who are awaiting the privatisation of the refineries in a manner at variance with the national interest should be advised to set up their own refineries like the Dangote Group.”

Newspot also reported that human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, had recently given reasons former President Umaru Yar’Adua reversed sale of the Port Harcourt refinery to a consortium led by Dangote Oil.

Falana said the reversal was a pivotal step to address the legal and ethical breaches surrounding the transaction and to protect Nigeria’s national interest.

alleging that Obasanjo bypassed some legal requirements by sidelining then-Vice President Atiku Abubakar and directly managing the privatization of several state-owned enterprises.