Former President
Olusegun Obasanjo has explained that the sale of two of the nation’s oil oil
refineries had been concluded before he exited office in 2007, saying his
successor, the late Umaru Yar’Adua, reversed the sale due to “pressure”.
Obasanjo said this
in his serialised interview with ‘Book Club’, a programme on Channels
Television, monitored in Lagos on Wednesday.
The ex-President
said business mogul, Aliko Dangote, leading a consortium of investors, had paid
$750m for two of the refineries, as the Federal Government was finding it
difficult managing the facilities at the time.
He, however,
regretted that instead of the Yar’Adua administration to consolidate on the
sale so that the investors could turn around the fortunes of the refineries,
his successor succumbed to pressure and reversed the sale of the oil
facilities.
Obasanjo equally
revealed that not only did his successor canceled the sale, he also refunded
the $750m paid by the investors.
He added, “The
refineries are old and Dangote and some investors paid $750m for two of the
refineries. My successor came to office and reversed the sale; he even refunded
the money they paid.
“So, I went to
him and said ‘why did you do this’? He said it was because of pressure. So, I
said ‘so the pressure of some people was more important than the interest of
the whole nation’!
“Right now, you
will hardly be able to sell the refineries for more than $250m because they are
very old.”
Obasanjo
explained that most people, especially leaders, failed to analyse the decisions
of those before them before upturning those decisions, pointing out that most
leaders yielded to sentiment than informed opinions.
