SPECIAL REPORT: Nigeria’s self-reliance getting real, as Warri Refinery expected to start fuel production first quarter of 2023

*”Era of politicisation of governance gone forever”

*With Buhari, we’ve taken back our country – Patriots

*Cotton-Textile-Garment revival programme should get serious for the Nigerian textile industry to rise again

By KEMI KASUMU

This development, we gathered, is part of the plans by the present administration of President Buhari to make Nigeria self-reliant as it is impossible to have a country with full advantages and opportunities of natural resources and still suffer or having to depend on other countries to enjoy same natural benefits.

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the Warri Refinery rehabilitation works, when completed, will deliver fuel production before the first half of 2023.

The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, Mr. Femi Adesina, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

According to him, President Muhammadu Buhari expressed delight as he witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd and Daewoo Group for the rehabilitation of the Kaduna refinery.

He said the President was particularly excited as the signing came against the background of ongoing rehabilitation works at the Warri Refinery by the same Daewoo Group of South Korea.

Adesina quoted Buhari saying, “Daewoo Group has massive investments in the automobile, maritime, and other sectors of our economy.

”I am also aware that Daewoo is currently engaged in the execution of the NLNG Train Seven project and also constructing sea-going LPG vessels for NNPC and her partners.

“I look forward to the delivery of ongoing projects, especially at the Warri and Kaduna refineries, and the NLNG Train Seven.

”This no doubt will open many more windows of opportunities for Daewoo and other Korean companies in Nigeria.”

“Era of politicisation of governance gone forever”

This development, we gathered, is part of the plans by the present administration of President Buhari to make Nigeria self-reliant as it is impossible to have a country with full advantages and opportunities of natural resources and still suffer or having to depend on other countries to enjoy same natural benefits.

In the meantime, some undercover patriots have applauded the President on his sincerity that, despite huge volume of sabotage and denials of his achievements, is making Nigerians see light at the end of the tunnel with core needs of the people being provided by him now coming to the open, publicised or not.

One of them said, “We are glad that by President Muhammadu Buhari, we can now boldly and confidently say that we have a country. However, if you look at the country that is rehabilitating these refineries, South Korea, it is strong ally of United States and knowing that the deaths of our national assets that made our currency either stronger or go at per with the Dollar in the past were not without the knowledge of the West, what we do with South Korea now must be strictly between the two countries without allowing USA or any Western interference.

“This is what I understand by Nigeria’s foreign policy that Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, once advocated. It means that there is no foreign partner we cannot collaborate or relate with, bet it Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Germany, so long the national interest of Nigeria for the good of its people is well taken care off.

“It is the reason Nigeria should begin to see to implementation of the Yuan-Naira agreement soonest because the world is changing fast to a situation where you now have what in Moscow on Thursday October 27 with a club’s session addressed by President Vladimir Putin, titled, “A Post-Hegemonic World: Justice and Security for Everyone”.

“The countries that we are made to see as bad are those with meaningful partnership with us. With China we have our railways back. With Russia our iron and steel development plant to make Nigeria a truly industrial giant is certain with Ajaokuta revival. With South Korea now we are having our refineries to work again but we must be all eyes open. Because, if America could ask industries to desert Russia in a jiffy over one avoidable reason, Korea being its dependable ally must be made to see our ties as strictly above foreign interference. We will be good.

“This is important because we know them who asked us to sell our national assets and, when that failed, plunged us into taking loans that ended up making us subservient to them until President Muhammadu Buhari came in 2015 and said enough is enough! For this reason of enough is enough Nigeria now has many enemies and they are all in the West, who would go to the extent of sponsoring insecurity and revolution protests simply to collapse the country using some unpatriotic members of the country like we saw in RevolutionNow, hijacked EndSARS protests and IPOB as well as Boko Haram terrorism.

“Tell me I am wrong and I will prove my point further. They made sure that our refineries go moribund so they can be supplying us refined products from our own crude oil and at very exorbitant cost. From the crude, there are many byproducts possible but we are only given fuel. Where did they keep the rest? If our local refineries work, those byproducts taken away are capable of growing our own economy. Sadly, again, when we had adulterated fuel recently, which country supplied us? We know it from the West. We must be self-reliant and on this, like more, we queue behind our President, Muhammadu Buhari.

“I congratulate myself, President Buhari, his team and all Nigerians that we are having our nation back. Railways is back. Refineries coming back. National carrier coming back. These are sectors that matter. Then the Cotton-Textile-Garment revival programme should get serious for the Nigerian textile industry to rise again. We need it. We want it. So it shall be. Era of politicisation of governance gone forever. Anybody that must rule us must sign agreement on this with us,” he said.