Port Harcourt Refinery: You Are Not An Engineer – Tinubu Tells Obasanjo
Former president Olusegun Obasanjo has received criticism from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his remarks regarding the oil refinery in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to LIB, Obasanjo refuted assertions made by the Tinubu administration that the Port Harcourt refinery would begin operations in December 2023 during an interview he gave to TheCable.
Obasanjo believed that as long as they were owned by the government, the nation’s refineries would never run effectively.
“Someone told me Tinubu said refineries would work by December. I told the person the refineries would not work. This is based on the information I received from Shell when I was president,” he had said.
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Through his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, President Tinubu responded to Obasanjo’s statement, saying that since the former president is not an engineer, he shouldn’t be making such statements.
“Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, with due respect to him, is not an engineer. He’s not the engineer working at the refineries. So, the engineers and the NNPC gave the president a report and they have said that it will work by December this year,” he had said while speaking on Daily Trust space themed: ‘Analysing the First 100 Days of President Tinubu’.
“We still have like four months to go. I will say that with all due respect to the former president, who is an elder statesman and our father, that what he said is his personal opinion and view. I will rather rely on the judgment of the engineers who are working at the refinery. So, I think we should wait until December.”
After the ongoing rehabilitation contract between the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and Italian company, Maire Tecnimont SpA, is finished, President Tinubu had stated in August that the Port Harcourt petroleum refinery would begin producing by December 2023.
If the refinery is revived as promised by Tinubu, Nigeria’s reliance on oil imports and reliance on international refineries will decrease.
The refineries, which generated little to no petroleum during the previous ten years and were completely shut down in 2021, are currently being renovated, according to NNPCL.
