Obasanjo slams NNPCL refinery tour invite, labels it disrespectful

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed his frustration over a recent invitation extended to him by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), calling it “disrespectful.”

The invitation, issued by NNPCL spokesperson Olufemi Soneye, was for Obasanjo to tour the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries. It came after the former president discussed the failed efforts to privatise Nigeria’s oil refineries during an interview on Channels Television on Thursday.

Obasanjo has long criticised the management and mismanagement of the country’s refineries. He pointed out that despite substantial financial investment, no meaningful progress had been made. Reflecting on his tenure as president, Obasanjo recalled that his government had made significant attempts to privatise the refineries, including reaching out to private players such as Aliko Dangote. However, his successor, President Musa Yar’Adua, rejected a $750 million offer from Dangote to manage the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, leading to continued poor performance.

Speaking about the current state of the refineries, Obasanjo noted that NNPCL had informed Yar’Adua that it was capable of managing the refineries, despite the corporation’s evident limitations. “When I was president, I wanted to do something about the three refineries we have: Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna. Aliko got a team together after I asked Shell to come and run it for us. And Shell said they wouldn’t. I said, ‘Please come and take equity,’ they said no. I said, ‘Okay, don’t take equity, come and run it,’ they said no,” Obasanjo recounted.

READ ALSO: Obasanjo reveals how NNPC rejects Dangote’s $750m offer to manage Nigeria;s refineries

He also stated that more than $2 billion had been squandered on maintaining the refineries since then, without any improvement. The former president further explained that if Shell had rejected the management offer, he would have trusted their reasoning, highlighting the stark contrast between the effectiveness of private companies like Dangote’s refinery and the inefficiency of the state-run refineries.

In a bid to defend the refineries’ current state, Femi Soneye, NNPCL’s spokesperson, insisted that the refineries were operational and had undergone extensive rehabilitation. He invited Obasanjo to visit the facilities and observe firsthand the progress made under NNPCL’s management.

However, Obasanjo, through his media aide Kehinde Akinyemi, rejected the invitation, deeming it disrespectful. Akinyemi questioned the manner in which the invitation was extended, pointing out that there had been no formal communication from NNPCL as of January 2, 2025. “Is that the right way to invite a former president of the country? Who says Baba has even seen the statement or read the news? It is a total disrespect for the office of the former president,” Akinyemi said.

Written by Sakinat Musa Abubakar, Editor at Neptune Prime 

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