Nigeria Was Sick, Now Recovering- Senate Committee Chairman

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs, Jide Ipinsagba, has assured the commencement of operation across all refineries in the country before the end of 2024, stating that Nigeria is on the road to recovery.

The lawmaker who is also a senator representing Ondo North Senatorial District of Ondo State, said this in Akure, Ondo state capital.

Ipinsagba said efforts are on top gear to ensure all the refineries are functioning before the end of this year.

He said, “Port Harcourt refinery today has about 90 to 95 per cent optimisation in terms of retrofitting, Warri is about 80 per cent and Kaduna is about 70 per cent.

“The Dangote refinery is ready to operate at any moment from now. So with all these internal consumption of fuel will not be a problem.

“We also found out that we have the opportunity to export our refined oil, which will also improve our exchange rate because we have started exportation, that is all about refinery. We are expecting the refinery to kickstart before this year runs out.

“This is not a paper talk, our committee went for oversight on this. What I am telling you now, it was demonstrated and we saw it. We went there ( to the refineries), and we looked at everything, it is not that we sat in our office and talked, we went to Kaduna, we were in Port Harcourt, we were in Lagos and Warri as well, just to ensure what they are telling us is not just on paper”.

Ipinsagba who is also the Vice Chairman of, the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the current reforms of President Bola Tinubu.

According to him, “Someone that is sick would be fed gradually before the person becomes fat. Nigeria was sick before and what the current administration is doing now is a recovery plan, we are trying to do damage control but that cannot be done in a day.

“President Tinubu is trying his best to ensure the country stabilises. You can see that interventions are coming from different angles now. I will only appeal to Nigerians to be patient a bit and see how this government is going to perform.”