The regular and the social media has been kept busy in the past couple of days as a result of the news of the commencement of operations by the Port Harcourt Refining and Petrochemical Company in Rivers State.
In one of the reports, the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government announced that the facility commenced operations on Wednesday, December 20, 2023, as the first phase of work at the plant had been completed.
It added that refined petroleum products would start flowing from the refinery after the Christmas break.
However, it should be recalled that Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Kaduna, and Warri went on shameful sabbatical breaks and they did so for over 20 years.
While the Nigerian government and its over-joyed people are still basking in the euphoria, it is rather more solomonic to ask pertinent questions – and the major one is, are there measures in place to ensure that the refinery resuscitation project is not sabotaged again?
Observation
This question is rather more pertinent if ones considers the fact that those who made sure the refineries remained dormant for several years and smiled to the banks with their ill-gotten petro-dollars and, they are still around – most of them are directly and or indirectly connected with even the present administration in country.
It is equally important for those concerned to learn from history – to get to sit down to interrogate reasons, actions and inactions that literally killed the moves to resuscitate the refineries by previous administrations. It took the Tinubu-led government less than a year to perform this ‘Miracle of Port-Harcourt’.
We will still harp on the need for governments at all levels to embark on serious reorientation of the people of the country. In particular, Nigerians need to know why it is important to preserve, protect and guard national monuments including the refineries jealously.
Meanwhile, it will not be out of place if we also join other great Nigerians to congratulate President Bola Tinubu and his team on this great feat. Our belief is that more of this will come if they remain committed and they maintain the focus.
Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!
