The leaders of organized labor were given assurances by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday night that the Port Harcourt refinery would start operating by December 2023. This was disclosed by organized labor on Wednesday evening.
The labour groups also pointed out that once the president made several commitments, they decided to go back to the negotiating table.
In the statement, the national presidents of the Trade Union Congress and the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero and Festus Osifo, respectively, praised Nigerians for their support of the country’s protests.
According to them, it was important to let Nigerians know that the request made by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria highlights how successful the protest has been.
“The engagement was fruitful in that immense mileage was obtained with regards to the issues that bogged down the work of the Presidential Committee on Subsidy Removal and necessitated the protest, viz., He committed to an immediate restructuring of the framework for engagement in line with the input of the Labour leaders.”
After receiving financing approval from the Federal Executive Council of $1.5 billion for the project, the NNPC started work on the refinery’s renovation in 2021. Since then, several dates have been established for the refinery’s start-up.
Timipre Sylva, a former minister of state for petroleum resources, predicted that the old Port Harcourt refinery will be operational by the end of the previous year (2022) in September 2022.
Additionally, Sylva stated in March 2023 that the plant would start refining operations before the end of the second quarter of 2023. Both promises were never fulfilled.
President Bola Tinubu has now declared with assurance that the Port Harcourt Refinery will start operating by the end of this year.
He further pledged to ensure that Agreement reached on the Wage Award for Nigerian workers will be implemented immediately.
“He promised to unveil a workable roadmap to the CNG alternative next week. On the strength of the president’s pledge and commitment, we have decided to return to a new and reinvigorated dialogue process to allow for full implementation.
“Once again, we thank Nigerians while we wait for the Government to fulfill its part of the understanding as agreed with His Excellency; the President.”
