JUST IN: President Tinubu Promises To Revive Nigeria’s Refineries
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.
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“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 utilization 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 salaries 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