Business
‘Buhari Rejected Saudi, Qatari Bids For PH Refinery Rehabilitation’
Former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, has disclosed that former President Muhammadu Buhari rejected proposals to hand over the Port Harcourt refinery to private investors, including those from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, for rehabilitation during his tenure.
Kachikwu, also a former Group Managing Director of the then Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, made the revelation recently while speaking at a business mentorship lecture series organised virtually by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board.
He recalled that after restarting the refinery in 2015 with local engineers at a cost of less than $40m, his plan was to concession it to private investors, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Nigerian consortiums, who had already shown interest.
“If I remember very well, in December 2015, we took the unusual step of reopening the Port Harcourt refinery using local engineers from NNPC who understood the facility and could repair the refineries, and it cost us probably less than $40m at the time.
“So again, I refused to go into this love to turn around maintenances which are costing billions. I never did any.
“My attitude was that the private sector should take over the refinery, pay government licence fees and taxes, and put in the funds to repair it and make it operational.
“There were investors ready to take it, but the proposal was not approved. I believed we should hand over the refinery. Saudi Arabia was ready to take it; Qatar was ready to take it.
“Private Nigerians who have had a bid process put together teams which should have taken over the refinery, paid government licence fees and taxes and some level of joint venture money. And then, go ahead to repair the refinery and make it operational, but it failed because it wasn’t approved”, Kachikwu said.
According to him, when privatisation efforts stalled, he introduced the idea of co-location projects that would allow new investors to build within the premises of the existing plants and share facilities such as storage, pipelines and terminals.
However, he said the government later abandoned that plan and returned to the old model of refinery repairs.
“When that failed because it wasn’t approved, I went to co-location, trying to bring new investments into the same refinery but in a fenced yardage, but be able to share certain facilities like storage, pipelines, terminals and that sort of stuff. When the government abandoned it and said no, they want to go and repair refineries again, we’re still there today”, he explained further.
Kachikwu added that his resistance to costly turnaround maintenance contracts was part of the reason he pushed for private sector involvement.
The former minister said Nigeria could have achieved self-sufficiency in domestic refining earlier if the privatisation and co-location models had been pursued, rather than recurring government-led repairs that have left the refineries moribund.
He recalled awarding licences to nine modular refineries, four of which he said are working today.
Recall that the Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna refineries are still not working despite the billions of dollars invested in turnaround maintenance.
The Port Harcourt refinery, which was declared operational last year by the Mele Kyari-led Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, was later shut down in May.
While Nigerians called for the sale of their facilities, the new Group Chief Executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Bayo Ojulari, refused to sell them.
Ojulari had stated that the Port Harcourt refinery was losing as much as N500m every month on operations before rehabilitation works were suspended.
According to him, the refinery was pumping about 50,000 barrels of crude, but less than 40 per cent of the equivalent of what was going in was being processed effectively.
He said, “When I resumed, one of the first priorities I focused on was the refinery. I did a quick review to see if we could quickly fix it. What I found is that we were losing between $300m and $500m on a monthly basis.
“The first thing we said was, ‘Rather than continue to lose, let’s quickly stop and look for a way to put this refinery into a sustainably profitable venture.”
Amid speculations that the refineries may not work again, Ojulari showed strong determination that they will work again.
Contrary to the views of the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, that the refineries might not return to operations, Ojulari said the NNPC is highly determined to achieve this.
The organised private sector, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, petroleum marketers, and other stakeholders have all called for the sale of the refineries, but Ojulari rejected the advice.
In July, Dangote stated that the refineries, which are under the management of the NNPC, had gulped up to $18bn, yet they have refused to work.
Recall that Ojulari himself echoed a similar sentiment in an interview with Bloomberg at the same time in Vienna, Austria, stating that the country had invested heavily in the refineries without getting any tangible results.
He said reviews were ongoing and that would lead the NNPC to do things differently.
“And as you know, we are determined! We are determined to make sure that our refineries work. We’ve been spending a lot of time on detailed reviews (sic), taking all the learnings.
“We are driven by the fact that the Nigerian states and the future of Nigeria’s success are above any individual of us. That’s what drives our determination to ensure that we put a solution that is sustainable for our refineries”, he said last month.
Ojulari, who officially ruled out the sale of the Port Harcourt refinery, reaffirmed his commitment to completing “high-grade rehabilitation” and retention of the plant.
He stated that the position isn’t a shift. Rather, it was informed by ongoing detailed technical and financial reviews of the Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri refineries.
The statement indicted the past NNPC executive, quoting Ojulari as saying that “the ongoing review indicates that the earlier decision to operate the Port Harcourt refinery prior to full completion of its rehabilitation was ill-informed and sub-commercial.”
He was quoted as saying, “Although progress is being made on all three, the emerging outlook calls for more advanced technical partnerships to complete and high-grade the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery. Thus, selling is highly unlikely, as it would lead to further value erosion.”
Meanwhile, Nigerians are hopeful that more resources will not be wasted on efforts to revamp the moribund facilities.
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A boat accident in Bayelsa state has killed a serving Pastor, Wife and other church members along Brass waterways
The sad incident happened at Odioama in Brass local government area of Bayelsa State when the Pastor, wife and members of his church were in a programme.
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?Tide confirmed that the lifeless body of the Pastor’s wife has been found and deposited in a mortuary while the remains of her husband ,the Pastor is yet to be recovered
as search party are still ongoing.
Although the real cause of the boat Mishap is not yet known as at the time of this report, our Correspondent gathered that the identities of the Pastor, wife and church members were not disclosed to the public.
The mishap, Tide gathered occurred on Friday morning when the church members were on a boat transit
The Bayelsa State government and the state police command are yet to issue official statement’s on the sad accident
By: CHINEDU WOSU
The Rivers State Council of Nigeria Civil Service Union has called on the State Government to urgently scrap the contributory pension scheme, describing it as unfavourable to long-serving civil servants in the state.
Chairman of the union, Chukwuka Osuma, said this in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt, recently.
Osuma said the current pension structure has continued to worsen post-retirement hardship for workers.
He noted that the contributory pension scheme had failed to provide adequate retirement security for workers who had spent many years in service, especially those approaching retirement age.
According to him, civil servants who had served for more than 20 years were among the worst affected under the scheme, insisting that many retirees could no longer cope with prevailing economic realities.
He also informed that the Union has made moves to showcase their concerns, pleading with Governor Siminalayi Fubara to abolish the pension policy and introduce a more favourable arrangement for affected workers.
“The union was not opposed to pension reforms, the contributory scheme should only apply to newly employed workers or those with fewer years in service”, he said.
Osuma explained that workers who had already spent decades in the civil service ought to remain under a more secure pension structure capable of guaranteeing stability after retirement.
The labour leader further noted that inflation and the rising cost of living had continued to erode the value of retirement savings, thereby increasing the suffering of pensioners across the country.
He also appealed to the state government to consider extending the years of service in the civil service from 35 to 40 years and the retirement age from 60 to 65 years.
Osuma argued that such adjustment had become necessary in view of present-day economic realities and changing conditions in the workplace.
The unionist also reviewed that similar policies had already been adopted in some sectors and jurisdictions, expressing optimism that the State could also implement the reforms for the benefit of workers.
He however, commended Governor Fubara for approving an N85,000 minimum wage for workers in the state, noting that the amount was above the national benchmark of N70,000.
Osuma also acknowledged the government’s efforts in the area of workers’ promotions and bonuses, but insisted that pension reforms and extension of years of service remained critical to the long-term welfare and stability of civil servants in Rivers State.
By: King Onunwor
The Federal Government has launched the South-West zonal engagement and ministerial advocacy tour on the Cooperative Bank of Nigeria share capital mobilisation, sensitisation and cooperative sector digitalisation.
Reports say the initiative was launched through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
According to reports, the advocacy tour, organised by the ministry’s Federal Department of Cooperatives, began on Monday in Lagos.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security and Supervising Minister of Cooperative Affairs, Dr Aliyu Abdullahi, said the initiative was part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Abdullahi described the exercise as a strategic effort to reposition the cooperative sector as a key driver of inclusive economic growth, financial inclusion, enterprise development, food security and national prosperity.
“Today represents a defining moment in our collective determination to reposition the cooperative sector as a major driver of inclusive economic growth, financial inclusion, enterprise development, food security and national prosperity,” he said.
The minister noted the modern cooperative movement in Nigeria originated in the South-West following the 1934 Strickland Report, which led to the enactment of the Cooperative Societies Ordinance of 1935.
According to him, the decision to commence the sensitisation and share capital mobilisation tour in the region is symbolic, as it marks a return to the roots of cooperative development in the country.
Abdullahi said the advocacy tour was a direct outcome of resolutions reached at the 8th Regular Meeting of the National Council on Cooperative Affairs held in Abuja in March 2026.
He said the council approved the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme, a comprehensive framework designed to strengthen the cooperative sector and align it with the administration’s goal of building a one-trillion-dollar economy.
“The reform programme focuses on seven strategic pillars, including governance reforms, cooperative financing and the establishment of the Cooperative Bank of Nigeria, digitalisation, capacity building, value chain development, inclusion of youths, women and persons with disabilities, and strategic partnerships,” he said.
He said the establishment of the Cooperative Bank of Nigeria and the digitalisation of the cooperative sector were the two major transformational initiatives under the programme.
“The Cooperative Bank of Nigeria is aimed at rebuilding a strong cooperative financial system capable of supporting cooperators, farmers, artisans, traders, SMEs, youths, women and persons with disabilities with accessible and affordable financial services,” he said.
Abdullahi emphasised that the proposed bank would be government-enabled but not government-funded.
“Government is not establishing the bank as an owner, nor will it rely on Treasury Single Account funds.
“The role of government through the FMAFS is to provide policy support, stakeholder coordination, regulatory facilitation and an enabling environment under the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme,” he said.
Also speaking, the Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, Mrs Folashade Ambrose-Medebem, reaffirmed the state government’s commitment to cooperative sector transformation.
She described cooperatives as critical tools for promoting inclusive growth, grassroots productivity, food security, financial inclusion and community wealth creation.
Ambrose-Medebem said Lagos State would continue to support reforms and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of the Renewed Hope Cooperative Reform and Revamp Programme (2025–2030).
“Together, let us build a cooperative ecosystem that is modern, transparent, digitally enabled, financially inclusive and globally competitive.
“Let us build cooperatives that not only mobilise savings, but also mobilise prosperity,” she said.