By Our Correspondents
President Bola Tinubu has assured petroleum industry stakeholders that Nigeria’s moribund refineries will be revived under his administration, insisting that the turnaround must be driven by profitability and not mere activity.
The President gave the assurance on Thursday when he received the Executive President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Salimon Oladiti, and other union leaders at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Addressing the union’s concerns over the long-delayed rehabilitation of the nation’s state-owned refineries, Tinubu emphasised that his administration was committed to a comprehensive economic reset.
“The refineries you mentioned are going to come back to work. We’re just building a very firm reset and structural reworking of the economy,” he stated.
He, however, cautioned that the revival must translate into tangible value, warning against the spectacle of past failures where refineries operated without yielding returns.
“Ordinary flame and smoke of a refinery doesn’t mean it’s working, until it’s profitable and yields the value for which it is built,” Tinubu added.
The President also called on vehicle and truck owners who have converted to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to pass on the cost savings to commuters rather than pocketing the full benefit.
“We will do more. We will encourage you, but ask your drivers to let it trickle to the commuters too, because whatever benefit that is coming from CNG is going into the pocket of truck owners. It’s not spreading as fast as I would like it, but it should spread,” he said.
Tinubu linked the CNG push and refinery revival to the broader fiscal reforms his administration has pursued since 2023, noting that funding for major road infrastructure—including the Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Kano, and Sokoto-Badagry roads—was a direct product of those reforms.
Recalling a tense 2023 meeting with the union at Akodo Resort in Lagos, the President said he had been upfront about his subsidy removal policy from the start, adding that no industrial action would force a reversal.
“You have been a very good partner of government in progress. I’m glad you recall the Akodo Resort meeting. We had a threat of possible strike, and I told you: you may strike all you want, but fuel subsidy will be gone,” he declared.
Tinubu rejected the narrative that subsidy removal had hurt ordinary Nigerians, arguing that the reforms had benefited salary earners across all tiers of government, market women, and even the families of union members.
“Who are the people receiving the salaries in the local government administration? Are they not common men and women receiving salary regularly at the state level? The ordinary people receiving salary at the federal government regularly, it affects all the market women around us, including your wives,” he said.
The President affirmed that he bore full ownership of the nation’s economic recovery, regardless of the state in which he inherited it.
“I’m not a man who looks back at everything, because I’ve accepted the asset and liability of my predecessors, no matter what has happened in the years past. It’s my responsibility now, as President, to fix it and make it work for the largest common value of our population. I take responsibility for that, and I’m going to do it,” he said.
Tinubu appealed for continued partnership with the union through the difficulties of governance, drawing a metaphor of childbirth to describe the nation’s journey.
“It’s not easy to manage a democratic regime full of twists and turns, hills and valleys. But it’s through perseverance, endurance and good determination that we can bring about the relief of a newborn baby in a pregnancy. Motherhood is painful, but the joy is everlasting. I promise you, you will enjoy a better Nigeria,” the President assured.
Earlier, NUPENG President Salimon Oladiti raised key concerns on behalf of the union, including the persistent casualisation of workers in the upstream oil and gas sector.
“Our relationship with the International Oil Companies and the indigenous players in the upstream sector has been very cordial. However, we want to bring to your attention an unhealthy trend we have been trying to correct with little to no success, the casualisation of workers, particularly in the upstream sector,” Oladiti stated.
He noted that the union had engaged affected companies without results and urged the President to intervene.
“We have engaged the management of some of the affected companies without results. Mr President, we urge you to use your good offices to stop casualisation of workers in our sector,” he said.
Oladiti also commended the administration’s road rehabilitation programme and the move to revive the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries through partnerships with Chinese firms. He, however, called for similar attention to be extended to decaying NPSC depots across the country, recommending they be handed over to private investors under an equity arrangement.
The union leader further urged the President to press state governors to comply with the Supreme Court judgment affirming local government financial autonomy.
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