Atiku Abubakar quickly responded to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on Sunday, February 8, 2026, claiming that the company’s recent admission of failure validates his long-standing push for the privatization of state-owned refineries.
The former vice president’s statement follows comments made by NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer Bayo Ojulari, who recently revealed that the $1.5 billion spent on the Port Harcourt Refinery’s rehabilitation was essentially a waste of scarce resources. Ojulari admitted that despite the heavy investment, the facility remained unprofitable and had become a drain on national value, leading to the decision to halt operations.
Atiku noted that his advocacy for privatization has been met with vilification for years, with critics accusing him of wanting to sell national assets to “friends.” He remarked, “Today, the facts have caught up with the rhetoric.”
He argued that the recent push to revive these refineries was driven by “political pressure” rather than sound economic reasoning. He criticized the government for paying billions in salaries to staff at facilities that do not produce a single liter of petrol.
Atiku advised the Tinubu administration to discontinue any new arrangements, including those with foreign partners, warning that they merely replicate the same failed “turnaround maintenance” models of the past.
He stated that Nigeria would have been better served by selling the refineries pre-rehabilitation to avoid the current “ballooning debt” and the depreciation of assets that have effectively become liabilities.
The NNPCL has shifted its strategy, recently announcing talks with China Refinery and Petrochemical Company to potentially fund and run the plants as a non-operating partner, a move Atiku views as yet another “belated acceptance” of the private sector’s necessity in the industry.
