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An energy expert, Dan D. Kunle, urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take what he called one of the most decisive decisions of his administration to privatize four Nigerian government-owned refineries, arguing that the facilities had become a crippling burden on the country’s economy.
In an open letter addressed to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Kunle described the Port Harcourt I Refinery, Port Harcourt II Refinery, Warri Refinery, and Kaduna Refinery as “the four sore fingers of the NNPC,” and asserted that the refineries have consumed a lot of public resources for decades without providing reliable refining capacity for the Nigerian people.
According to him, successive governments have continued to pour billions of naira into rehabilitation projects that have repeatedly delivered little or no meaningful results, while critical sectors such as health services, education, security, electricity and infrastructure remain underfunded.
Kunle, who praised Tinubu for taking tough decisions such as removing fuel subsidies and liberalizing the foreign exchange market, argued that the President now has another opportunity to cement his legacy through transparent refinery privatization.
Contrasting the privatization of Eleme Petrochemicals during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he said the success recorded under private ownership shows that the government should withdraw from operating commercial companies and allow competent investors to unlock the value of these companies.
He questioned why Nigerians continue to receive repeated assurances about refinery rehabilitation even though promises have failed for decades, and noted that announcements about turnaround maintenance, technical partners, and rehabilitation have consistently ended without long-term improvements in refinery operations.
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The energy expert proposed that President Tinubu direct the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to transfer the four refineries to the National Council for Privatization and Public Enterprises Bureau so that a transparent, competitive and lawful sale process can be completed within one year.
He recommended that potential investors—including the reported Chinese partners—should participate in an open bidding exercise alongside qualified Nigerian and international investors, with the entire process conducted transparently and all transaction details made public.
Kunle also suggested an ownership structure in which 85 percent of each refinery would be sold to core investors, five percent allocated to the host state and 10 percent held by the Federal Government, arguing that such an arrangement would attract long-term investment while reducing political interference.
He warned against transferring strategic national assets through opaque arrangements disguised as technical partnerships or memorandums of understanding, and warned that poorly structured transactions could expose Nigeria to protracted legal disputes, international arbitration and potential seizure of assets abroad.
According to him, the Bureau of Public Enterprises has provided the legal framework for privatization and remains the most credible route to sell assets in a manner that protects Nigeria’s long-term interests.
Kunle further argued that NNPC Limited should shift its attention to areas where it can create greater national value, including expanding upstream oil production, securing crude oil supplies, protecting pipeline infrastructure and strengthening the country’s energy security rather than retaining what he termed as failing downstream assets.
He stressed that revenues generated from Nigeria’s upstream oil sector must no longer be diverted to finance refineries that repeatedly fail to meet expectations, and stressed that such resources would be better invested in hospitals, schools, roads, electricity and other critical sectors capable of improving the lives of millions of Nigerians.
Describing the decision before President Tinubu as a historic opportunity, Kunle said future generations will judge whether the current administration ended decades of waste or merely prolonged it, and urged the President to undertake a transparent privatization process guided by the law and national interest.
He concluded that Nigeria had reached a point where difficult but necessary reforms could no longer be postponed, and emphasized that “sometimes, healing only begins when the diseased parts have been removed.”
