‘Buhari Spent $19bn To Repair Old Refineries, Dangote Built New One With $19bn’

Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, disclosed that over $19 billion used to build Dangote Refinery was spent by former President Muhammadu Buhari to maintain the government-owned refineries.

Sule said the refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri, belonging to the government, have a combined capacity of 450,000 barrels per day, but that of Dangote has 650,000 barrels per day. 

He stated that rather than building a new refinery with the money, it was used as maintenance for the 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. 

“That is one and a half times the size of our three refineries combined,” Sule told Channels Television on Thursday, 9 June. 

“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,” Sule noted.

Despite the amount spent on the refineries, they are still not functioning, and the governor blamed this on the maintenance approach, stating that the money is spread across the three refineries, instead of focusing on one. 

“The refinery is actually a component for water, crude, and diesel, about five or six different components that constitute a refinery. 

“The moment the government says we are going to spend $2 billion this year on the refinery. The $2 billion is spent and as far as the President is concerned, they have given $2 billion. 

“Now when it goes to the three refineries that we have in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna. Then they say, you now take $700 million, you now take $800 million – by the time they take that, it goes to fix maybe only one component out of the four components that are all bad,” Sule explained.