Former President Muhammadu Buhari who doubled as substantive minister of petroleum resources, assisted by a junior minister, Timipre Sylva and Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited who was positioned to be running ground operations, may have been taken Nigerians for a big ride on the repairs and rehabilitation of government-owned refineries as work has long hit a dead end.
So as millions of Nigerians trudge under the heavy weight of mounting transportation costs, the fall out of the removal of petroleum products subsidy by President Bola Tinubu in his first major policy directive on inauguration day, any hopes of soon seeing a downward move on petrol pump prices from the restart of production at the Port Harcourt Refining Company, the nation’s first and biggest oil refinery, and later Warri Petrochemicals & Refining Company and Kaduna Refining & Petrochemicals Company, appear a forlorn dream.