Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recalled how he tried to persuade oil giant, Shell, to take over Nigeria’s four refineries when he was in office.
He said the company declined as it was not prepared to get involved in the corruption that bedevil the system.
Obasanjo stated this as he noted that the cabals benefitting from fuel importation would not allow Dangote Refinery to work.
In an interview with ‘Financial Times’, he said: “When I was President, I invited Shell and I said, look, come and take equity participation and run our refineries for us. They refused. They said our refineries have not been well maintained.
“We have brought amateurs rather than bringing professionals. They said there’s too much corruption with the way our refinery is run and maintained. And they didn’t want to get involved in such a mess,” he explained.
On the promises that the refineries will be fixed, he asked, “How many times have they told us that? And at what price? Those problems, as far as the government refineries are concerned, have never gone away. They have even increased. So if you have a problem like that and that problem is not removed then you aren’t going anywhere.”
