A former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Friday called for the immediate suspension and public scrutiny of the “Technical Equity Partnership” recently announced by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited involving two Chinese firms, Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd.

Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, described the deal as “another dangerous gamble” with Nigeria’s economic future.

The chieftain of the African Democratic Congress accused the administration of President Bola Tinubu of attempting to mortgage critical national assets through opaque arrangements allegedly lacking technical credibility, transparency, and accountability.

He said, “We are demanding an immediate suspension and public scrutiny of the “Technical Equity Partnership announced by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited involving two Chinese firms, Sanjiang Chemical Company Limited and Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co. Ltd.

“It is both shocking and insulting that after wasting over $2.5 billion on endless refinery rehabilitation scandals, the NNPC is once again asking Nigerians to trust another experiment built on secrecy and questionable competence.”

According to him, independent assessments of the two Chinese firms involved in the Memorandum of Understanding indicated that neither company possesses the pedigree, technical depth, or global reputation associated with the rehabilitation and management of complex crude oil refineries such as those in Port Harcourt and Warri.

The statement noted that Sanjiang Chemical, though a legitimate petrochemical company, primarily specialises in surfactants, ethylene oxide, methanol-to-olefins, and light hydrocarbon processing rather than crude oil refining.

“There is no publicly available evidence anywhere in the world showing that Sanjiang has ever built, operated, or managed a full-scale crude oil refinery of the magnitude and complexity of Port Harcourt or Warri refineries.

“Processing petrochemical derivatives is not the same as running an ageing national refinery burdened with decades of operational decay,” Atiku stated.

He also questioned the competence of the second company, Xingcheng (Fuzhou) Industrial Park Operation and Management Co., Ltd., alleging that available corporate and industry records did not show verifiable experience in petroleum engineering, refinery operations, or hydrocarbon processing.

“By every available corporate and industry record, Xingcheng is essentially an industrial park and infrastructure management company — the equivalent of handing over a hospital’s intensive care unit to a real estate developer simply because they can construct buildings,” the statement added.

The former Vice President further queried why the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited would bypass globally established refinery engineering and EPC firms in favour of entities whose backgrounds, he said, raised “more questions than confidence.”

He warned that the administration risks turning Nigeria’s refineries into “another expensive black hole of failed promises, reckless experimentation, and opaque transactions.”

“It is unacceptable that after years of failed Turnaround Maintenance scams, billions of dollars squandered, and repeated lies about refinery functionality, Nigerians are now being told to celebrate a Memorandum of Understanding signed with companies whose core expertise does not align with the technical realities of refinery rehabilitation,” the statement said.

Atiku also cited what he described as troubling financial indicators surrounding Sanjiang Chemical, alleging that reports pointed to declining revenues, shrinking profitability, and significant short-term debt exposure.

“This raises a fundamental question: if a company is already battling financial compression and liquidity concerns in its own operations, how exactly does it intend to shoulder the burden of reviving two of Africa’s most troubled refineries?” he queried.

The former VP argued that the entire arrangement bore “the disturbing fingerprints of another hurried and poorly scrutinised deal designed more for headline propaganda than sustainable national interest.”

He said, “Nigerians must not allow the same people who destroyed the refineries through incompetence and corruption to now hide behind vague Chinese partnerships to continue the cycle of deception.

“The era where NNPC signs opaque agreements abroad and expects Nigerians to clap blindly is over. National assets are not toys for bureaucratic experimentation. The Port Harcourt and Warri refineries are too strategic to be surrendered to uncertainty, obscurity, and corporate guesswork.”