We planned to build five refineries for exports – Gowon | Nairalaw

A former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd), said on Monday
that there was a plan by his government to build five
export-oriented refineries in the country but it did not
materialise.

Gowon, who was the Head of State from 1966 to 1975, stated this
during the annual international conference of the Oil and Gas
Trainers Association of Nigeria in Lagos.

“During our time, our plan was to build five export-oriented
refineries to be able to export refined fuel instead of giving the
crude to various countries,” he said while addressing journalists
on the sidelines of the event.

The nation’s refineries, which are located in Port Harcourt,
Kaduna and Warri, have a combined installed capacity of 445,000
barrels per day but have continued to operate far below the
installed capacity for many years.

Gowon expressed the hope that the introduction of modular
refineries in the country would bring about improvement.

“So, I hope with the modular refinery scheme, things will
improve and we don’t have to be sending our crude abroad to be
refined and then they come here with all the subsidies, and the
problem it has created,” he added.

A former Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr
Christopher Kolade, in his presentation, stressed the need to
unlock Nigeria’s potential through comprehensive human capital
development.

Kolade, who is the founder of Chris Kolade Foundation, said
Nigerians had not yet agreed on “values we cherish as a
nation.”

“Does this nation have a culture on which noble ideas can
flourish? Those who want to pursue a noble cause must know that
only noble people can achieve noble causes,” he said.

The President, OGTAN, Dr Mayowa Afe, said human capital
development in any chosen endeavour had been identified as a tool
to promote economic growth and development in a nation.

“Its significance and relevance through acquisition of necessary
skills is a prerequisite for socio economic transformation. So, our
wealth is not oil and gas but the human capital that we are endowed
with by God,” he said.

Afe described the Nigerian Content Act as one of the best things
to have happened to the nation’s oil and gas industry.

He said, “Improvements are still needed, but the Act practically
created the oil and gas training industry as it is today. Ten years
ago, there were very few indigenous trainers, doing very little;
but that has greatly changed today. The implementation of the law
has been acclaimed to have attracted investments worth $2bn into
the country and created about 38,000 job opportunities.

“This created opportunities for our members to be more involved
in providing content. Some of our members were saddled with the
responsibility for managing various compliance issues that arose
from the implementation of Nigerian content initiatives in their
companies. This was quite impactful as it has resulted to the
growth and development of our members.”