Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stop blaming past administrations and account for the trillions of naira committed to Nigeria’s refineries under his government.
Reacting on Sunday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) said it was ‘political escapism’ for Tinubu to now describe the refineries as inherited liabilities after his administration celebrated their rehabilitation.
Citing NNPC’s financial records, Atiku said the combined obligations of the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries to the national oil company rose from about ?4.52 trillion at the end of 2023 to ?8.67 trillion at the end of 2024, an increase of ?4.15 trillion in one year under President Tinubu.
‘You cannot have it both ways,’ Atiku said.
‘When the cameras were rolling in November 2024, your government told Nigerians that the Port Harcourt refinery was back. NNPC announced that it was operating at 70 per cent capacity and presented it as an achievement under your leadership.
‘Now that the celebration has turned into embarrassment, the same administration wants Nigerians to believe that the refineries are merely liabilities inherited from previous governments.
‘Mr President, you claimed the refinery when you thought it was working. You cannot disown it now that the smoke has cleared.’
Atiku said the situation was worse because Tinubu’s own NNPC leadership had admitted that the refineries were running at a ‘monumental loss’ and that the country was ‘effectively wasting money.’
‘So Nigerians deserve answers. If the combined obligations of these refineries jumped by more than ?4 trillion in 2024 alone, what exactly did Nigerians receive in return? Where did the money go? Where are the products? Where are the savings Nigerians were promised? And where is the refinery your government celebrated before television cameras?’
He added that after more than three years in office, Nigerians were entitled to examine ‘the liability his own administration has become.’
‘The real liability today is a government that consumes trillions without delivering results; a government that celebrates projects before they work and searches for predecessors to blame when they collapse,’ Atiku stated.
The former Vice President said it was painful that Nigerians were paying high petrol prices while huge public funds were tied up in refineries that failed to deliver sustainable capacity.
‘Think about what ?4 trillion could do for Nigeria. Think about the universities struggling with overcrowded lecture halls, hospitals without modern equipment, roads that have become death traps and communities without electricity or potable water.
‘Yet trillions accumulate around refineries that the government itself now effectively acknowledges have been haemorrhaging public resources. This is not merely incompetence. It is an unforgivable failure of stewardship.’
Atiku said the contradiction between the government’s 2024 refinery announcements and its later admissions was ‘a fitting metaphor for Tinubu’s presidency.’
‘President Tinubu’s scorecard after more than three years is increasingly a story of fire and smoke – enormous expenditure, extravagant announcements and very little Nigerians can hold in their hands.
‘Nigeria cannot afford another four years of paying for failure.
‘Mr President, stop blaming your predecessors. After more than three years, you are no longer merely managing inherited liabilities. You are creating your own – and increasingly, your government itself has become the biggest liability Nigerians are being forced to carry.’