It’s Not True Nigeria’s Refineries Didn’t Work — Festus Osifo

The President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, has dismissed claims that Nigeria’s state-owned refineries never worked.

Osifo stated this in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.

“I’m an engineer of over 20 years standing, and I understand how mechanics work.

“So I know a system that is working, and I know a system that doesn’t work. I listened to a programme that said the refinery never worked. It’s not correct, the refinery worked,” he said.

The TUC chief explained that the problem was not inactivity but inefficiency.

“There is a difference between a piece of equipment working and a piece of equipment working efficiently. In engineering, these are two different things,” said Osifo.

However, Osifo clarified that the country’s refineries were shut because they were operating at a loss.

“When you feed crude that costs 10 million dollars into the refinery and end up with products worth about 9.5 million dollars, it means you are running at a loss.

“That was exactly what happened, not that the refineries were not working,” he said.

He added that during a visit to the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, the union was told the shutdown was due to “material balance”.

“The material you feed into the refinery and what you are getting out was reduced in terms of value. So that was why they shut it down to restructure the strategy,” Osifo said.

The TUC President further noted that there was also a technology gap.

“When those refineries were working 15 to 20 years ago, the old refinery was feeding products into the new one.

“The new refinery would then refine, for example, PMS, to the right specification. But the government wanted a quick fix by separating both units, which created a material balance challenge,” he added.