A human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, has explained why the late President Umar Yar’adua cancelled the sale of Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 2007.
In a statement on Friday, Falana, under the Alliance on Surviving COVID and Beyond (ASCAB), noted that Yar’adua’s cancellation of the sale of a 51 per cent stake each in the Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries to Bluestar Oil at $561 million and $160 million followed protests from oil workers in the country.
He stated that Bluestar Oil was a consortium of three domestic companies, including Dangote Oil, Zenon Oil and Transcorp, adding that many interest groups in Nigeria questioned the “legal validity and moral propriety of the sale as they were consummated in the last days of the Obasanjo administration.”
Falana recalled that the unions in the oil industry – the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) – opposed the privatisation of the two refineries on grounds of conflict of interest and lack of due process, adding that they believed the facilities were worth US$5 billion.
“Convinced that the deals were not in the national interest, both unions proceeded on a four-day strike that almost paralysed the Nigerian economy in June 2007. The strike was called off based on the assurance of the federal government that the deals would be fully investigated,” he stated.
Falana asked NUPENG and PENGASSAN to intensify their historical struggle aimed as a counterpoise to the renewed campaign to privatise the country’s refineries, adding, “Those who are awaiting the privatisation of the refineries in a manner at variance with the national interest should be advised to set up their own refineries like the Dangote Group.”
