President Bola Tinubu’s tax reform adviser, Taiwo Oyedele, has advised Nigerians to stop praying for the country’s refineries to work. Rather, they should channel such energy in demanding their sale.
Oyedele made the comment on Monday at The Platform, a bi-annual good governance conference hosted by Poju Oyemade, Senior Pastor of Covenant Christian Centre in Lagos.
Nigeria has four refineries. Two in Port Harcourt, one in Warri and another one in Kaduna.
Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum, said in August that the four refineries would all be operational by next year, but the one in Port Harcourt will kick off in December this year.
But Oyedele, in making a case that the refineries should not work under government control, quoted a National Assembly report which revealed that more than N10 trillion has been expended in trying to fix the four refineries between 2010 and 2020.
He also quoted another report by an ex-Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited who said the refineries, if operational, would process crude oil at a loss.
He said if the refineries become operational and start refining crude, a litre of fuel in Nigeria will be the most expensive in the world owing to corruption and inefficiencies.
It is not clear if President Tinubu is considering sale of the refineries. Recall that during the electioneering, he even attacked his opponent, Atiku Abubakar, for saying he would sell the refineries if he got elected.
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