By Lizzy Chirkpi
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has vowed to revive Nigeria’s moribund refineries, saying the Federal Government will undertake a comprehensive reset and structural overhaul of the facilities rather than rely on short-term interventions.
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 refineries, which represent significant investments by successive administrations, would not be allowed to waste away.
He said the government would deploy research, technical assessments and restructuring to identify and address the structural, operational, financial and managerial challenges responsible for the poor performance of the facilities.
“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,” Tinubu said.
The President, however, cautioned that the mere production of flames and smoke from a refinery should not be mistaken for functionality, stressing that profitability and value delivery must ultimately determine whether a refinery is truly operational.
“Ordinary flame and smoke of a refinery doesn’t mean that it’s working until it’s profitable and yields the value for which it is built,” he said.
Tinubu also accepted responsibility for fixing the country’s inherited assets and liabilities, assuring that his administration would ensure that the refineries operate in the interest of Nigerians.
“No matter what has happened in the years past, it’s now my responsibility as president to fix it and make it work for the greatest common good of our population,” he said.
The NUPENG leadership, in turn, commended Tinubu for the removal of the fuel subsidy, describing the decision as a courageous reform that had saved Nigeria from decades of financial drain.
Oladiti said the policy had begun freeing resources for infrastructure development and other sectors of the economy.
He specifically praised the administration’s road construction and rehabilitation programme, citing the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway as examples.
“For our members, a good road is the difference between arriving home safely and never arriving at all,” he said.
According to the NUPENG president, improved federal highways would reduce accidents, fuel spillages and fatalities while easing the difficulties faced by tanker drivers and other road users.
He nevertheless urged the President to sustain efforts to restore the country’s refineries, arguing that functional refineries would strengthen energy security, reduce dependence on imported petroleum products and create employment opportunities.
The President also promised greater inclusion of NUPENG in the implementation of the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
He challenged the union to ensure that the benefits of the CNG programme ultimately reach ordinary commuters.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, described NUPENG’s acknowledgement of the administration’s reforms as significant, saying it indicated a reduction in friction between organised labour and the government.
Idris cited the removal of the fuel subsidy and infrastructure development as examples of reforms whose impact was becoming visible across the country.
“For their leader to come and recognise the reforms that you are doing, especially the major reforms you undertook in this country—the removal of fuel subsidy and also acknowledging that everywhere you go is a construction site in this country—is a good development,” he said.
Tinubu also said the constitutional issues surrounding the implementation of local government autonomy were being reviewed for possible fine-tuning.
The President used the meeting to remember the late Frank Kokori, a former NUPENG president and prominent figure in Nigeria’s pro-democracy struggle.
“We struggled for this democratic dispensation together, and it was very tough for us to have this democracy,” Tinubu recalled.
The meeting ended with NUPENG leaders decorating President Tinubu as the Grand Patron of the union.