The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has demanded a full audit of Nigeria’s refineries, citing recent reports that allege that successive governments have spent nearly $18 billion on the rehabilitation of the three major refineries in the country.

In a statement by the Interim National Publicity Secretary of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party questioned whether the President Bola Tinubu administration has been deceiving Nigerians, having recently spent over $2.8 billion dollars on the refineries, before declaring that they were moribund.

“The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has noted with deep concern the recent confirmation by the Tinubu administration and the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) that the federal government is proceeding with the full privatisation of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries. This development, coming just months after government officials claimed that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries had resumed partial operations, raises fundamental questions about transparency and policy coherence.

“It would be recalled that the APC government recently announced that the refineries were already working.  It is therefore curious that the same government, having spent such humongous amounts on the refineries, is now planning to sell them off.

“ADC is concerned about the perennial waste and underhanded dealings in the name of turnaround maintenance that never turned anything around but the personal fortunes of those involved. We believe this must not continue. We are however suspicious of the current moves being made by the government to sell off the refineries outright without giving full consideration to alternative options and without consultations with critical stakeholders. Selling off the refineries under the prevailing circumstances is indeed conducive for all sorts of criminal dealings, whereby national assets could be deliberately devalued and sold to cronies.

“ADC therefore calls for a full and independent audit—financial, technical, and structural— before any sale is contemplated or privatisation is considered.

“Successive APC administrations have poured over $18 billion into the so-called rehabilitation of Nigeria’s refineries. The current administration is reported to have spent another $2.8 billion under the same pretext. Yet there is no verifiable increase in refining capacity, no observable cost efficiency, and no fuel security benefit accruing to the Nigerian people. Instead, the same refineries have remained idle or dysfunctional, while the government continues to fund the importation of refined petroleum products.

“Even Africa’s foremost industrialist, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, whose private refinery now stands as the only viable refining asset in the country, has publicly stated his doubts that these government-owned refineries can ever work again. And he is right to doubt. The infrastructure is obsolete, the operations are hollowed out, and the entire value-chain has become a black hole for public funds. So again, we must ask: what exactly is being sold, and why now?,” the statement read.