President Bola Tinubu has assured workers in the petroleum sector that Nigeria’s long-idle refineries will eventually resume operations.
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.
While responding to concerns raised by the union, the President said the government was determined to restore the country’s refineries, while stressing that their revival must translate into meaningful economic value.
He noted that seeing flames or smoke from a refinery was not enough to establish that the facility was functioning properly, insisting that the plants must operate efficiently and profitably.
“The refineries that you mentioned are going to come back to work,” he said.
Tinubu said he had taken responsibility for addressing the challenges surrounding the country’s assets and liabilities inherited from previous administrations.
“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.
“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 highlighted what he described as the wider economic benefits of his administration’s policies, particularly the regular payment of salaries to workers.
According to him, the consistent payment of wages to federal, state and local government employees has helped sustain households and businesses across the country.
He further disclosed that funding had been secured for major long-term infrastructure projects, including the Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Kaduna, Abuja-Kano and Sokoto-Badagry highways.
Tinubu also appealed to NUPENG to help ensure that the benefits of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) become more visible to commuters, acknowledging that the programme had not expanded as rapidly as he had anticipated.
Earlier, NUPENG President, Salimon Oladiti, raised concerns over the continued casualisation of workers in the upstream oil and gas industry.
Oladiti said the union had repeatedly engaged companies over the matter but had yet to achieve a satisfactory resolution.
He explained that NUPENG and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) had refrained from taking industrial action partly because of concerns about the possible impact on the national economy.
“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 said.
On infrastructure development, the NUPENG president commended the administration for its road rehabilitation efforts and its attempts to restore the Warri and Port Harcourt refineries through partnerships with Chinese companies.
He, however, called for similar attention to be given to the country’s deteriorating petroleum depots.
Oladiti suggested that the depots could be transferred to private investors through an equity-based arrangement to facilitate their rehabilitation and improve their efficiency.
