President Bola Tinubu has assured that Nigeria's refineries will be revived and repositioned to become profitable, rather than merely operational, as part of a broader structural and economic reset.
The President gave the assurance on Thursday when he received the newly elected national executive of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), led by President Comrade Salimon Akanni Oladiti, at the State House in Abuja, according to a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy.
Responding to NUPENG's request for the refineries to be revived, the President explained that the Federal Government would undertake detailed research and technical assessments to identify the structural, operational, financial and managerial challenges affecting the facilities before implementing sustainable solutions.
"The refineries that you mentioned are going to come back to work; we're just building a very firm, resetting, and structural reworking of the economy of it," Tinubu stated, noting that a refinery producing flame and smoke does not necessarily mean it is functional, as profitability and value delivery would be the true measure of success.
He added that he had accepted the assets and liabilities of his predecessor and takes personal responsibility for fixing the refineries regardless of their condition under previous administrations.
The President further promised NUPENG greater inclusion in implementing the Presidential Initiative on Compressed Natural Gas, urging the union to ensure the CNG programme's benefits reach ordinary commuters.
On local government autonomy, he noted that constitutional issues surrounding its implementation were being reviewed for possible fine-tuning, and appealed for understanding among stakeholders.
Tinubu also paid tribute to the late Frank Kokori, a former NUPENG president, recalling their shared role in Nigeria's pro-democracy struggle.
Information and National Orientation Minister Mohammed Idris, who also spoke at the event, commended NUPENG for acknowledging the positive outcomes of the administration's reform agenda, describing the union's gesture as uncommon and comparing it to the Nigeria Labour Congress's earlier commendation following a minimum wage increase.
NUPENG's Oladiti, in turn, praised the President for ending the fuel subsidy regime in 2023, calling it a courageous decision that saved the country from decades of financial drain and freed resources for infrastructure development, including the ongoing 750-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and the 1,068-kilometre Sokoto-Badagry Superhighway.
The union's leadership decorated Tinubu as Grand Patron of NUPENG during the visit.