At the end of the day, they are all the same — Sani takes aim at Buhari and Atiku

Senator Shehu Sani represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate.

Call it whatever you want, but if it's contrary to the reality on ground, that Nigeria's refineries are simply tools used by a group of individuals to milk the common wealth of the nation, then you have lost it.

The four Nigerian refineries managed by the NNPC were meant to meet the local needs of Nigerians or at least, minimize the need to import refined petroleum products from foreign countries. But, the refineries two of which are located in Port Harcourt with one each in Kaduna and Delta States, have fallen short of expectations despite having a combine capacity of 445,000 barrels per day.



It is safe to say that Nigeria's consumption of petroleum products has more than doubled since the refineries were built. But that is not the issue in contention however. The problem is not increase in consumption albeit, its another issue in its own right, but rather, the refineries are functioning way below their respective capacities.

There's the argument that the refineries were not properly maintained in the past years. It is therefore, natural that lack of proper maintenance will undoubtedly lead to break down at some point. But this also begs the question of what exactly happened to the funds meant for the maintenance of the refineries by previous administrations including the current one.



Senator Shehu Sani who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th Senate, has taken to tweeter to reveal what he considers as the major reason our refineries remained in their pathetic state despite several attempts at getting them working at optimal capacity again.

The refineries are crippled by five categories of people;those who want them sold,those who want to buy them,those who import,those who benefits from the importation of petroleum products and the Turn around maintenance gang.

— Senator Shehu Sani (@ShehuSani) July 7, 2019

According to Sani, almost everyone suggesting solutions to fixing the crippled refineries have questionable motives. He said irrespective of their capacities and recommended solutions to solving the nation’s refinery problems, they all have one thing in common which is to milk the country. This as his tweet suggests, is the very reason the refineries are still as crippled as they were.

He said, "The refineries are crippled by five categories of people; those who want them sold,those who want to buy them,those who import,those who benefits from the importation of petroleum products and the Turn around maintenance gang."



Unfortunately, both Atiku who wants the refineries sold, and Buhari who wants them retained, both fall into Sani's five categories. Atiku wants the refineries sold for the very reason of cutting waste, saying so much funds has been spent on fixing the refineries but with no result. He argues that there's so much corruption in the downstream sector as certain individuals take advantage of the state of the refineries to continue to milk the country.

While it's true that the above categories as pointed out by the Kaduna Senator likely have questionable motives, what remains unknown is what every Nigerian wants to know which is the way out.