By Our Reporter
The House of Representatives has launched a fresh probe into the alleged $18 billion spent on rehabilitating Nigeria’s four moribund government-owned refineries without any tangible results.
The decision followed a motion moved by Hon. Oluwaseun Whinghan (APC–Badagry, Lagos) during Thursday’s plenary, presided over by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu.
The motion, which drew overwhelming support, mandates the relevant committees to investigate the status of the refineries and the funds sunk into their rehabilitation over the past two decades.
The refineries in focus — two in Port Harcourt, one in Warri, and another in Kaduna — have remained comatose for years despite successive administrations’ promises of revival. Their collapse has forced Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, to rely almost entirely on imported refined petroleum products.
Whinghan decried the “endless cycle of waste and deceit,” questioning how billions of dollars could vanish with no measurable progress. He cited recent public remarks by billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, both of whom described the refineries’ rehabilitation efforts as a colossal failure.
He recalled that in 2007, under President Obasanjo’s administration, Dangote and a group of private investors acquired the refineries — a move later reversed by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, who opted for state-led rehabilitation using public funds. “Nearly two decades later, there’s nothing to show for it,” he lamented.
Whinghan further referenced comments by NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Bayo Ojulari, who in a July 10, 2025 interview with The PUNCH, admitted the refineries remain non-functional despite massive investment, suggesting that selling them might be the only viable solution.
“The House must now interrogate this monumental mismanagement,” Whinghan said, “to ensure accountability for the billions spent, and to safeguard Nigeria’s energy future.”
Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude oil producer, yet it has relied on imported petroleum products for decades. The country has spent billions on subsidies and foreign exchange while its refineries have been left unused. Several governments have tried to fix the refineries with ‘turnaround maintenance’ projects, but these efforts have not yielded the desired results; marked by a lack of transparency, overpriced contracts, and broken promises.
Now, the immediate task before the House is not ‘revival’, but ‘reckoning’ – finding out how the $18 billion spent on their rehabilitation vanished without a single refinery roaring back to life.