President Bola Tinubu has pledged to restore Nigeria’s refineries to operation, saying the Nigerian National Petroleum Company’s facilities must ultimately deliver economic value rather than merely appear active. He made the commitment on Thursday during a meeting with leaders of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Tinubu said visible signs such as flames and smoke would not prove that a refinery was functioning successfully. In his view, the decisive measures are profitability and the value generated for the purpose for which the facilities were built. He also said his administration had inherited both assets and liabilities from earlier governments and that he accepted responsibility for addressing the country’s economic difficulties for the benefit of Nigerians.
“The refineries you referred to will resume operations,” Tinubu said, referring to the NNPC facilities. He added that he would not retreat from the problems before him: regardless of what had occurred in previous years, he had accepted the inheritance left by his predecessors. As president, he said, the responsibility for repairing the refineries and making them work for the broadest possible public benefit now rested with him, and he was determined to fulfil it.
