The Presidency has denied widespread belief that President Goodluck Jonathan has already endorsed the sale of the country’s four refineries.
Speaking with journalists at the Presidential Villa, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati maintained that the president has not given an approval to that effect, and he doesn’t intend to do so anytime soon.
The announcement by the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) that the refineries had been earmarked for privatisation in 2014 had sparked threats of a nationwide industrial action from oil and gas workers unions.
However, Abati has expressed confidence that the threatened industrial action will not hold, as the refineries will not be privatised.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was first to attempt privatisation of the refineries but succeeding president, Umaru Yar’Adua reversed the move. In 2012, a presidential committee inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan to probe allegations of corruption in the oil and gas industry recommended the sale of the refineries to conserve hitherto wasted government funds.
There had been insinuations that President Jonathan approved the composition of a steering committee chaired by Minister of Petroleum Resources with 13 members — among whom are Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Minister of Power, Minister of Labour and Minister of National Planning — to spearhead the privatisation process.
Subsequently, the executives of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG) threatened to begin an industrial action in the first week of January 2014 should the Federal Government stick to the alleged plan, branding the proposed privatisation as an attempt to hand over the refineries to allies of the ruling government.
