Senate President Godswill Akpabio has said that Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Group, has silenced skeptics by completing the 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) petroleum refinery.
Akpabio made this statement on Saturday during a tour of the facility, describing the refinery as the ninth wonder of the world.
He highly commended the refinery, adding that Dangote deserved all accolades for this achievement.
Akpabio condemned those who were skeptical about the refinery’s completion, referring to them as “dream killers.”
According to him, detractors of the refinery have been silenced, and previous governments have been put to shame with the project’s completion.
“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 650,000bpd 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,” he stated.
The former Akwa-Ibom State Governor also noted that the federal government could not make refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri function, but the billionaire and his team proved it is possible to build a functioning refinery in Nigeria.
“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,” he added.
Dangote has shamed many people by completing refinery – Akpabio