Rufai Oseni has demanded account of $2.9bn Refinery Rehabilitation spending after Tinubu’s fresh revival pledge.
NewsOnline Nigeria reports that ARISE Television presenter Rufai Oseni has called on President Bola Tinubu to provide Nigerians with a detailed account of the funds spent rehabilitating the country’s state-owned refineries.
Speaking during The Morning Show on Friday, Oseni questioned what he described as conflicting official statements about the operational status of the Port Harcourt Refinery.
His comments followed Tinubu’s assurance that the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries would resume operations after undergoing structural and operational reforms intended to make them commercially viable.
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The President made the pledge while receiving the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. Tinubu said the facilities must become profitable and deliver value rather than merely show signs of activity.
Oseni recalled that Tinubu had congratulated the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in November 2024 following what the Presidency described as the successful revitalisation of the Port Harcourt Refinery and the commencement of petroleum-product loading.
He questioned why the President was again promising that the refinery would return to operation after previously celebrating its revival.
“As of November 26, 2024, President Tinubu congratulated the NNPC on the successful revitalisation of the Port Harcourt Refinery,” Oseni said.
“Today, the President is saying the same refinery on which he extended his congratulations will work again. So, it did not work when he extended his congratulations?”
The broadcaster demanded transparency over the approximately $3 billion approved for the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s public refineries, suggesting that the expenditure may not have delivered the expected results.
“President Tinubu, as the father of the nation, before anything, we must know how that $3 billion was spent,” he said.
“After you spent $3 billion on turnaround maintenance for a refinery, you said it worked in 2024, and today you are saying it will work again?”
Available records show that approximately $2.9 billion was approved for the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries—not solely the Port Harcourt facility. Of that amount, the Federal Executive Council approved $1.5 billion for the Port Harcourt Refinery rehabilitation in March 2021.
Tinubu had congratulated NNPCL in November 2024 after the company announced that petroleum-product loading had commenced at the old Port Harcourt Refinery.
The President’s latest comments have renewed public scrutiny of the rehabilitation programme and raised further questions about the operational condition and commercial viability of Nigeria’s government-owned refineries.
