The former Nigerian Minister of Tourism, Femi Fani-Kayode, has tackled critics of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited upon the recent revival of Port Harcourt Refinery.
This comes as he alleged that some elements within the private sector in the oil and gas industry want to undermine and understate the revitalisation of the Port Harcourt Refinery.
Fani-Kayode made this known in a statement on his official X handle on Thursday, noting that the oil business is not the same thing as selling sugar, spaghetti, and cement, tackling Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Refinery.
His comments come amid claims against the viability of Port Harcourt Refinery after NNPCL announced that the plant has begun trucking out petroleum products on Tuesday.
Recall that Timothy Mgbere, Secretary of the Alesa community stakeholders, in an interview on Arise Television on Thursday alleged that Port Harcourt Refinery trucked out old stock, not freshly refined petroleum products.
However, Fani-Kayode fingered some elements in the private sector of the industry as responsible for the campaign of calumny to discredit the Group Managing Director of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over the commencement of Port Harcourt Refinery after years of being in comatose.
He stressed that the Port Harcourt Refinery is a great victory for Nigeria.
According to him, what Nigerians need is for NNPCL refineries to flourish, and the same for Dangote Refinery and others.
He said,
"The resurrection of the PH refinery is one of the most encouraging things that has happened in the petroleum sector for many years, and the credit for this must go to the President and the GMD of NNPC.
"It is a pity that some elements in the private sector who are new in the field are doing all they can to undermine and understate this great victory for Nigeria.
"The oil business is not the same as selling sugar, spaghetti, cement, or rice, and no matter how hard you try, you cannot muscle your way and create a monopoly on the sale of refined products as you did for other commodities over the years.".
He added:
"NNPC will go from strength to strength, and once its other refineries are working as well, Nigerians will have cause to smile again. Let the new kid on the block flourish, but let the NNPC refineries flourish too. That should be our goal and not a squalid attempt to discredit NNPC and its leadership.
"Every optimistic and true lover of Nigeria's progress and President Tinubu's renewed hope agenda must be proud of the GMD Mele Kyari. His tenacity, bravery, ingenuity, and forthrightness have been rewarded with this great feat. Surely this is hope renewed for Nigerians.".
We recall that on Tuesday the NNPCL announced the commencement of petroleum product production at the Port Harcourt Refinery.
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