Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state, has stated that the past administration of Muhammadu Buhari spent more than the $19 billion used in building the Dangote Refinery on reviving the country’s refineries.
Nigeria has refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri but none is operational which led to the creation of Dangote Refinery, a move seen by industry experts as the begining of privatisation of the oil sector.
The Dangote Refinery which is Africa’s biggest oil refinery launched its building plans in 2017. But the project was commissioned in May 2023, a few days before the end of Buhari’s administration
Sule has now criticized the amount of money spent trying to reinvigorate Nigeria’s refineries .
“Look at how much the President Buhari administration spent on fixing the refineries. In the eight years, he spent more money than the $19 billion that Dangote spent in building a refinery” Sule said to Channels Television on Thursday, June 8.
“That is one and a half times the size of our three refineries combined,”
He blamed the payments of subsidy for making Nigeria’s refineries non-functional.
“From the government side, I think we didn’t do a good job. When the (former) President (Buhari) came in in 2015, prices of crude oil dropped by less than 30 dollars. At that time, there was zero subsidy.
“Our three refineries in Nigeria today have a total of 450,000 barrels per day, Dangote is 650,000. He spent $19 billion on building it. We spent, not building a new one, but in maintaining these refineries; more than $19 billion in eight years, yet they have not been maintained,” he said.