Oluwatosin Enesi
In an exclusive interview with Channels TV on Thursday, Obasanjo discussed the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries during his presidency.
He explained how he sought external help to rehabilitate and manage the facilities but faced resistance.
He recalled, “I asked Shell to come and run it for us and Shell said they wouldn’t I said, Please come and take equity they said no. I said okay, don’t take equity, come and run it, they said no.
“Later on, I called them. I called the boss of Shell to come and tell me what the problem was and he gave me four or five reasons. He said, first of all, they make a major profit from upstream, not from downstream. He said they run downstream just to keep their head above water.
“Two, our refineries were too small: 60,000 barrels 100,000 barrels and I think 120,000 barrels. He said that at that time, the average refinery was going for 250,000 barrels.
“Three, he said our refineries were not well maintained. Four, he said that there was too much corruption around the activities of our refinery and they would not want to get involved in that.”
Obasanjo shared that after Shell’s refusal, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, assembled a team and paid $750 million to operate the refineries through a public-private partnership.
“Aliko got a team together and they paid $750m to take part in PPP (Public–Private Partnership) in running the refineries. My successor refunded their money and I went to my successor, I told him what transpired, he said NNPC said they wanted the refinery and they could run it and I said but you know they cannot run it,” he stated.
The former president expressed confidence in Dangote’s ability to manage his privately owned refinery effectively, contrasting it with the government’s inefficiency.
“I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than two billion dollars have been squandered on the refinery 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 is working, why are they now with Aliko? And Aliko will make his own 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 planting 100 heaps of yam but falsely claiming to have planted 200.
“They say after he has harvested 100 heaps of Yam, he will also have 100 heaps of lies. You know what that means,” he said.
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