President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assured petroleum workers that Nigeria’s long-inactive refineries will resume operations, saying his administration is committed to restoring the country’s critical petroleum assets.
Tinubu gave the assurance on Thursday when he received the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Responding to concerns raised by the union over the state of the nation’s refineries, the president said the facilities would eventually return to operation.
“The refineries that you mentioned are going to come back to work,” Tinubu said.
The president, however, stressed that the mere presence of flames or smoke at a refinery should not be regarded as evidence that the facility is operating effectively.
According to him, the refineries must be commercially viable, efficient and capable of delivering the value for which they were established.
Tinubu said he had accepted responsibility for fixing the assets and liabilities inherited from previous administrations, regardless of what happened in the past.
“I’m not a man who will go there, come back and say everything is fine because I’ve accepted the assets and liabilities of my predecessors,” he said.
He added that his administration was determined to ensure that the country’s assets worked for the benefit of Nigerians.
“No matter what has happened in the years past, it’s my responsibility now as the president to fix it, make it work for the largest common value of our population. I take responsibility for that, and I’m going to do it,” he said.
The president also defended his administration’s economic policies, arguing that the regular payment of salaries had helped stimulate economic activity across the country.
He said workers at the federal, state and local government levels were benefiting from regular salary payments, which, according to him, had positive effects on families and businesses.
Tinubu also highlighted the government’s infrastructure programme, saying funding had been secured for long-term road projects across the country.
He cited the Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Kano and Sokoto-Badagry roads among major projects being pursued by his administration.
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The president further urged NUPENG to ensure that the benefits of the Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, initiative reached commuters more rapidly.
He acknowledged that the impact of the programme had not spread as quickly as he expected and called for greater attention to its implementation.
Earlier, NUPENG President, Salimon Oladiti, raised concerns over the continued casualisation of workers in Nigeria’s upstream oil and gas sector.
Oladiti said the practice had persisted despite repeated engagements between the union and some companies operating in the sector.
“We have engaged the management of some of the affected companies without results. Mr President, we urge you to use your good offices to stop casualisation of workers in our sector,” he said.
The NUPENG president explained that the union had, in some instances, refrained from industrial action because of concerns over the wider economic consequences of disrupting operations in the oil and gas sector.
Oladiti also commended the administration’s road rehabilitation programme and its efforts to revive the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries through partnerships with Chinese firms.
He urged the Federal Government to extend the rehabilitation drive to the country’s deteriorating petroleum depots.
According to him, some of the depots could be handed over to private investors under an equity arrangement to improve their efficiency and reduce the burden on government.
The meeting provided an opportunity for petroleum workers to present concerns affecting employees and the wider oil and gas industry, while Tinubu reiterated his administration’s commitment to restoring critical petroleum infrastructure and improving the sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s economy.