Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed that his administration’s efforts to collaborate with Shell Plc to manage Nigeria’s refineries were thwarted due to the company’s concerns about corruption and unprofessional management.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, which gained widespread attention on Saturday, Obasanjo, who led Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, revealed that Shell refused the offer to take equity participation in the country’s refineries, citing poor maintenance and rampant corruption.
“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 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,” Obasanjo explained.
He also expressed frustration over the government’s repeated but unfulfilled promises to repair the refineries, questioning the effectiveness and sincerity of these initiatives. “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,” he added.
This revelation has reignited discussions about the persistent issues plaguing Nigeria’s oil sector, particularly the challenges of corruption and mismanagement that have long hindered the effective operation of the nation’s refineries.
