₦airaland Forum

KingTom:
The khaki wearing Labour warlord. How I forget my man

KingTom:
The khaki wearing Labour warlord. How I forget my man

Shettima has finished President Tinubu

God have mercy

With one clever story about Jonathan

He branded a Tinubu a tyrant

He called the Attorney General a chameleon

He called the NASS an assembly of lackeys

He called the Supreme Court a court of cowardice

He branded the… pic.twitter.com/LPPJHd7aAX

— DGov (@omoluabi1sq) July 10, 2025

Shettima has finished President Tinubu

God have mercy

With one clever story about Jonathan

He branded a Tinubu a tyrant

He called the Attorney General a chameleon

He called the NASS an assembly of lackeys

He called the Supreme Court a court of cowardice

He branded the… pic.twitter.com/LPPJHd7aAX

— DGov (@omoluabi1sq) July 10, 2025

The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has doubted the possibility of the state-owned Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries functioning again.

Dangote also stated that the refineries, which are under the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, had gulped up to $18bn, yet have refused to work.

The billionaire businessman spoke on Thursday while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School, after a tour of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos.

According to Dangote, the 650,000-capacity Dangote refinery, which he built after the government of late President Umar Yar’adua aborted his acquisition of the government refineries now has over 50 per cent of its output dedicated to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), saying that even government refineries committed just 22 per cent of their production to petrol.

Dangote recalled how he and his team had to return the refineries to Yar’adua, a few months after former President Olusegun Obasanjo left office in 2007.

According to him, the former managers of the refinery had told Yar’Adua that Obasanjo sold the facilities below their costs as a parting gift to him.

“The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government.

“And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so. And as of today, they have spent about $18bn on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much if they will work,” he said.

Dangote emphasised that the turnaround maintenance of the refineries was like trying to modernise a car built 40 years ago, when technology has advanced.

“The turnaround maintenance) is like you trying to modernise a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything have changed. Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine,” he stated.

Dangote’s comment buttressed Obasanjo’s comments last year about the refineries, two of which were shut down again after they were declared operational by the former NNPC Group Managing Director, Mele Kyari, in Q4 2024.

Obasanjo had stated that the NNPC was aware that it could not operate the refineries, saying international oil companies like Shell once refused to run the facilities when he requested them to do so.

According to Obasanjo, some Nigerians, including Aliko Dangote, once paid $750m to take over the refineries; however, his successor, Yar’adua, aborted the deal.

“I ran to him (Yar’Adua), I said, ‘You know this is not right’. He said, ‘Well, NNPC said they can do it.’ I said, ‘NNPC cannot do it,’ I told my successor that ‘the refineries, from what I heard and know, will not work and when you want to sell them, you will not get anybody to buy them at $200m as scrap’. And that is the situation we are in.

“So, why do we do this kind of thing to ourselves? NNPC knew that they could not do it, but they knew they could eat and carry on with the corruption that was going on in NNPC. When people were there to do it, they put pressure. In a civilised society, those people should be in jail,” Obasanjo had stated.

[Again, in January, Obasanjo said, “I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than $2bn have been squandered on the refineries and they still will not work.

“If a company like Shell tells me what they told me, I will believe them. If anybody tells you now that it (the refinery) is working, why are they now with Aliko (Dangote)? And Aliko will make his refinery work; not only make it work, he will make it deliver.”

Obasanjo concluded with a Yoruba proverb, comparing inflated claims about the refineries’ performance to a farmer who planted 100 heaps of yam but falsely claimed to have planted 200.

“They say that after he has harvested 100 heaps of yams, he will also have 100 heaps of lies. You know what that means,” he said.

Calls for the privatisation of the government-owned refineries, under the management of NNPC, intensified following the recent shutdown of the 60,000 barrels-per-day old Port Harcourt refinery, six months after it was declared operational.

BlueRayDick:
https://www.nairaland.com/8471849/nnpc-refineries-may-never-work

When Obasanjo said the same thing, Tinubu supporters claimed Obasanjo was just being a bitter old man who didn't want Tinubu's APC government to succeed where he failed.

In a sane country, Mele Kyari and the board members that worked with him should not be walking freely ; they should be in a maximum security correctional facility.

GloriousGbola:
NNPC as a company has a serious problem

they run like a listless govt organization to the max

in my experience with them - the only time anything moves is when a director says i want this done. outside of that, things can be on hold for months.

we had a project were we were all pressured to to kick off meeting after xmas because they wanted it on the books that this project started in 2024. after that project experienced minor hiccup that could have been solved by a visit from a middle manager - and it was on hold for 6 months because no one gave a damn to psuh.

as for that refinery some of my old colleagues were at the ceremony and they were joking about how our heads would have been cut off for the s**t that went down

i really hope Ojulari will be able to change the company culture - because this goes beyond kyari.

we can already see daily trust and co putting out the hit pieces because it is all about preserving the status quo within NNPC where thee is opacity and all that is carrying the company is crude oil revenue and not competence or innovation

BlueRayDick:
Any president that is serious will sell the refineries as scrap and heaven will not fall. Let them sell the refineries as scrap and make NNPC focus on regulating the oil and gas industry.

Imagine a whopping $18 billion has been expended on the so called revamping till date and we have nothing to show for it. In what world is it acceptable that such amount goes down the drain and nobody is taking the fall for it?

OasisX:


.......Obidients sha! LOL!

What did he say that against PBAT?! Fubara wasn't removed by the President, rather suspended. The suspension also followed due process cos NASS ratified it, so what did he say that against PBAT?!

Fubara is still addressing himself as Governor of Rivers State till today, guess you know?! LOL!

Ellexy:
Quick question, who is running Rivers state at the moment?

GloriousGbola:
we are now in sunk cost fallacy territory

they spent over a billion rehabilitating the refinery. what price can they sell at?

CrystalTiger:
https://x.com/SirJarus/status/1943556615937876189?t=9YTxb0s5w3yrNNlFsf9vAg&s=19

Maybe Jarus would be tagged "Obidient" soon..

OasisX:


........interim Administrator.

Ellexy:
What happened to the main administrator and why was he removed by the president?

OasisX:


......there wasn't an Administrator, rather an elected Executive Governor.

GloriousGbola:
we are now in sunk cost fallacy territory

they spent over a billion rehabilitating the refinery. what price can they sell at?

Theflint1:
Man's always been consistent.

OasisX:


......maybe Jarus will no longer be tagged Agbadorian. LOL!

CrystalTiger:
Has BAT fixed the bad road that made him not to visit Yelwata in Benue State where over 200 people died?

OasisX:


............absolutely.

Ellexy:
Exactly, so why was the elected executive governor removed and replaced with an administrator?

Theflint1:
You said you were going to get back to us on the letter PO posted, no update from Whatsapp groups yet?

CrystalTiger:
Just look at a building with a minister and a new appointee of the FG..

Let's not bother about Gadollar getting a run at the federal purse or the disgrace of a federal buildingt but let's focus on a private citizen, Peter Obi who went to an annual Catholic charity event..

He added that the EFCC was not helpless in the face of the sophisticated schemes, noting that proactive training and intelligence sharing had enabled the commission to identify and investigate such cases.

“But for us in the EFCC, virtual asset fraud and investment scams are not hard nuts to crack.

“Proactive and broad-based training and intelligence are bringing fraudulent schemes to the fore,” he said

CrystalTiger:
https://x.com/SirJarus/status/1943556615937876189?t=9YTxb0s5w3yrNNlFsf9vAg&s=19

Maybe Jarus would be tagged "Obidient" soon..