Senate President Godswill Akpabio says the completion and inauguration of Aliko Dangote’s 650,000-bpd petroleum refinery has silenced critics.
Akpabio said that the completion demonstrated that a private individual can achieve what governments could not, putting Nigeria on the path of energy security and economic growth.
Akpabio, during a tour of the facility on Saturday, hailed the refinery as the “ninth wonder of the world,” lavishly praising the project and congratulating Dangote on his remarkable achievement.
According to him, Dangote deserves all the accolades for his outstanding feat.
He slammed skeptics who doubted the refinery’s completion, labelling them “dream killers.”
He asserted that the project’s success has vindicated Dangote, silenced critics, and exposed the shortcomings of previous governments that failed to achieve what the billionaire entrepreneur has accomplished.
He said, “They told us in Abuja that Dangote refinery is a farce, but we have come here and seen for ourselves that the refinery is alive and running.
“Dangote has put to shame a lot of people. They are wondering how it is possible for a single individual to accomplish what an entire nation could not: what 240 million people could not maintain, what a continent could not do, and yet one person built a 650,000 bpd project.
“They keep wondering how one person can succeed where nations have failed; where the continent failed. But Dangote has done it. It is highly commendable.
“We came to see the refinery because we in the current Senate believe in the Nigerian dream.
“We didn’t come as doubting Thomases; we came because we believe in the project. We came to rekindle the hope of Nigerians and the Nigerian can-do spirit.”
Akpabio, a former governor of Akwa-Ibom State, pointed out that despite the federal government’s failed attempts to revamp refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri, Dangote and his team have demonstrated that building a functional refinery in Nigeria is indeed possible.
“The inability of the nation to refine its oil has brought untold hardship on Nigerians, so much so that the Belgian government recently banned the exportation of dirty and condemned fuel to West African countries just because we can’t refine our own products.”
Leave a comment