BY AMOS DUNIA, ABUJA – Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said for the Federal Government to budget $1.5 billion to renovate or turn around the Port Harcourt Refinery would appear to be an unwise use of scarce funds particularly at this critical juncture for a multiplicity of reasons.
This is as he stressed that the cost appears too prohibitive, especially at the backdrop of the fact that Shell Petroleum Development Company last year sold its Martinez Refinery in California, USA, which is of a similar size as the Port Harcourt refinery, for $1.2 billion.
Atiku, in a statement he personally signed, said that given this discrepancy, it is important to ask if there was a public tender before the cost was announced.
He said; “Was due diligence performed? Because we are certainly not getting value for money. Not by a long stretch.
Akitu therefore advised that we must bear in mind that the Shell Martinez Refinery is more profitable than the Port Harcourt Refinery.
The former Vice President further said; “First of all, our refineries have been loss-making for multiple years, and indeed, it is questionable wisdom to throw good money after bad.
“At other times, I have counselled that the best course of action would be to privatise our refineries, so they can be run more effectively and efficiently.
“At this critical period, we must as a nation be prudent with the use of whatever revenue we are able to generate, and even if we must borrow, we must do so with the utmost responsibility and discipline,” Atiku said.
He also said that it is a well-known fact both to the nation and our international partners that Nigeria’s economy is in dire straits just as unemployment has just reached an all time high of 33%, while inflation has hit another record high of 17%.
In his words: “We cannot as a nation expect to make economic progress if we continue to fund inefficiency, and we are going too deep into the debt trap for unnecessarily overpriced projects.
“Our national debt has grown from ₦12 trillion in 2015 to ₦32.9 trillion today. Surely that is shocking enough to cause us to be more prudent in the way we commit future generations into the bondage of bonds and debt,” he stressed.
