Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called for the immediate suspension and public review of a newly announced “Technical Equity Partnership” by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), involving two Chinese firms.
In a statement issued on Friday, May 8, through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described the arrangement as a risky move that could undermine Nigeria’s economic stability.
The former presidential candidate, who is a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of attempting to commit national assets through what he characterised as opaque and questionable agreements.
He said, “We are demanding an immediate suspension and public scrutiny of the ‘Technical Equity Partnership announced by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited involving two Chinese firms, Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd.
“It is both shocking and insulting that after wasting over $2.5 billion on endless refinery rehabilitation scandals, the NNPC is once again asking Nigerians to trust another experiment built on secrecy and questionable competence.”
Atiku argued that available assessments of the companies involved suggested limited technical capacity in handling large-scale crude oil refinery operations, particularly facilities such as those in Port Harcourt and Warri.
“There is no publicly available evidence anywhere in the world showing that Sanjiang has ever built, operated, or managed a full-scale crude oil refinery of the magnitude and complexity of Port Harcourt or Warri refineries.
“Processing petrochemical derivatives is not the same as running an ageing national refinery burdened with decades of operational decay,” Atiku stated.
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He also questioned the credentials of the second firm, describing it as lacking verifiable experience in petroleum engineering and refinery management.
“By every available corporate and industry record, Xingcheng is essentially an industrial park and infrastructure management company — the equivalent of handing over a hospital’s intensive care unit to a real estate developer simply because they can construct buildings,” the statement added.
Raising concerns about financial stability, Atiku said reports indicated that one of the firms faced declining revenues and mounting debt, questioning its capacity to handle complex refinery rehabilitation.
“This raises a fundamental question: if a company is already battling financial compression and liquidity concerns in its own operations, how exactly does it intend to shoulder the burden of reviving two of Africa’s most troubled refineries?” Atiku queried.
He warned that the deal could become “another expensive black hole of failed promises, reckless experimentation, and opaque transactions.”
“Nigerians must not allow the same people who destroyed the refineries through incompetence and corruption to now hide behind vague Chinese partnerships to continue the cycle of deception.
“The era where NNPC signs opaque agreements abroad and expects Nigerians to clap blindly is over. National assets are not toys for bureaucratic experimentation. The Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are too strategic to be surrendered to uncertainty, obscurity, and corporate guesswork,” Atiku said.