APC chieftain reveals how president saved $297m on refinery rehab

The Chairman (Media and Publicity), North-west zone of the All Progressives Congress, Alhaji Idi Mohammed Farouk, has revealed how President Muhammadu Buhari saved $297m on the rehabilitation of the Port Harcourt refinery.

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In a recent interview with Daily Trust, Farouk disclosed that with the appointment of Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, the country merely spent $10m on the rehabilitation of the refinery which was supposed to cost $297m.

In the words of Farouk, "The NNPC and its subsidiaries now have dynamic leaders. The appointment of the new Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, is putting a square peg in a square hole."

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Continuing, he said, 'His team in Port Harcourt, led by one Dr Fred Audu, made the refinery to start working. The bill given to government to make the refinery work was $297 million, and there was even no guarantee it would work. But the Dr Adu team was sent to Rivers State to put the refinery back on stream. The team did, the refinery is now producing and government spent less than $10 million.

'Can you see the huge savings? It’s just that when the Buhari regime came, it removed the cog in the wheel of progress. Our engineers are good. They are all Nigerian engineers. No white man is there. I also heard that they also used local Nigerian companies to put that place in order. We could have paid $297m without any guarantee.

'Kachikwu visited there, and I learnt he extracted a strong guarantee from the engineers to ensure they make the refinery work. When he went to Warri, I also heard he told them the refinery must work because they are engineers. He challenged them. The Kaduna refinery is already on stream. That is why we are getting petroleum products now.

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'And yet the PDP says this man has not worked. Haba! What else do we need? Nigeria is working. Buhari has succeeded. Criticisms must be constructive. Nigerians are not blind. They live in Nigeria and they see what is going on.

'When Buhari came, he removed them. When he removed the NNPC management and brought Kachikwu, it afforded these people the opportunity to work. They know how to work. They are engineers. They are scientists.

'But the kind of system at the top stopped them from performing positively. They would rather import the oil. Even the oil that they were importing was not, I understand, the quality that we require in Nigeria. Our engineers have to still work on it,' he revealed.