President Bola Tinubu on Thursday said his administration would revive moribund refineries. He, however, warned that their success would be based on productivity and not mere activities, as obtainable in the past.
Tinubu stated this when he received the Executive President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, Salimon Oladiti, and members of the union at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.
Addressing the delegation’s concerns about the long-delayed revival of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries directly, the President said, “The refineries you mentioned are going to come back to work. We’re just building a very firm reset and structural reworking of the economy.
“Ordinary flame and smoke of a refinery doesn’t mean it’s working, until it’s profitable and yields the value for which it is built.”
Tinubu also urged vehicle and truck owners who have converted to Compressed Natural Gas to pass on the resulting cost savings to commuters, rather than pocketing the full benefit themselves.
He said, “We will do more. We will encourage you, but ask your drivers to let it trickle to the commuters too, because whatever benefit that is coming from CNG is going into the pocket of truck owners. It’s not spreading as fast as I would like it, but it should spread.”
He tied both commitments to the wider fiscal reset his administration has pursued since 2023, telling the union that the funding now available for major road infrastructure was a direct product of that reform.
“I’m glad you have seen the effect of being able to find funding for long-term projects, the Lagos-Ibadan Road, Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Kano, Sokoto-Badagry and many other road networks, all for the good of us, the good of our economy and the safety of our people,” he stated.
Recalling a tense meeting held years earlier at Akodo Resort in Lagos, the President said he had been upfront with the union from the start about the direction of subsidy policy.
According to him, no threats of industrial action would force the reinstatement of petrol subsidies. The Nigerian leader said, “You have been a very good partner of the government in progress.
“I’m glad you recall the Akodo Resort meeting. We had a threat of possible strike, and I told you: you may strike all you want, but fuel subsidy will be gone. Today, to the benefit of our great country, I will soon publish the utilisation of what it is.”
He refuted the framing that subsidy removal had hurt the common man, arguing that the main beneficiaries of the reforms included ordinary salary earners across every tier of government.
“Who are the people receiving the salaries in the local government administration? Are they not common men and women receiving salaries regularly at the state level? The ordinary people receiving salary at the federal government regularly, it affects all the market women around us, including your wives,” he said.
Tinubu affirmed that he took full ownership of fixing the economy regardless of the state in which he inherited it. He said, “I’m not a man who looks back at everything, because I’ve accepted the assets and liabilities of my predecessors, no matter what has happened in the years past.
“It’s my responsibility now, as President, to fix it and make it work for the largest common value of our population. I take responsibility for that, and I’m going to do it.”
Tinubu appealed for continued partnership through the difficulties of governance. “It’s not easy to manage a democratic regime full of twists and turns, hills and valleys. But it’s through perseverance, endurance and good determination that we can bring about the relief of a newborn baby in a pregnancy.
“Motherhood is painful, but the joy is everlasting. I promise you, you will enjoy a better Nigeria,” the President said.
Earlier in the visit, Oladiti raised concerns on behalf of the union, including the treatment of workers in the upstream oil and gas sector. He described the practice of casualisation as unwholesome and persistent despite repeated engagement with affected companies.
“Our relationship with the International Oil Companies and the indigenous players in the upstream sector has been very cordial. However, we want to bring to your attention an unhealthy trend we have been trying to correct with little to no success: the casualisation of workers, particularly in the upstream sector.
“NUPENG and its counterpart, PENGASSAN, have been tolerating these unwholesome practices, knowing full well the enormous disruption that any industrial action could cause to the economy,” he explained.
“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,” Oladiti told the President, noting that the union’s frustration was not directed at the Minister of Labour, Maigari Dingyadi, whom he described as supportive and accessible.
On infrastructure, Oladiti commended the administration’s road rehabilitation programme, linking it directly to the safety of NUPENG’s tanker driver members.
He said, “We’ve seen real progress in the rehabilitation of federal highways, making journeys safer for our tanker drivers. Your administration has turned federal highways into massive construction sites, the ongoing, unprecedented 750-kilometre, six-lane Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the 1,068-kilometre Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway that will traverse seven states.
“For our members, a good road is the difference between arriving home safely and never arriving at all. That is a reform our members feel in their bones, and for it we say thank you.”
He also commended the administration’s move to revive the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries through partnership with Chinese firms, and pressed for similar attention to the Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company’s ageing depot network.
“We want to humbly request that the same energy and drive to inject life back into the refineries be extended to the decaying NPSC depots across the country. We strongly recommend that they be handed over to private investors to manage under an equity arrangement,” he said.
Oladiti also urged the President to press state governors to comply with the Supreme Court judgment affirming the financial autonomy of local governments.
SOURCE: PUNCH NEWS PAPER
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