Rather than spend $1.5bn on it, here are 10 alternative things I would do with the Port Harcourt refinery 

Ayo Akinfe

(1) Sell it to a steel company at a giveaway price to convert it into a manufacturing plant. Just imagine how Corus Steel would love the gift of a readymade plant

(2) Invite oil companies to come and buy it and convert into a facility that can rival Dangote’s Lekki plant. Dangote’s facility can meet all Nigeria’s domestic needs, so the NNPC no longer has any business running refineries. All competition should now be private

(3) Ask Innoson Motors to take it over and begin production of a new brand of vehicle there. Maybe even get them to buy the rights to the Volkswagen Beetle and start manufacturing from there

(4) Ask energy companies to bid for the facility and convert it into a gas-fired power plant

(5) Given its location, try and woo shipbuilders to purchase it. Nigeria had 853km of prime Atlantic coastline and it is criminal that we are not a maritime manufacturer

(6) Ask Pfizer or AstraZeneca to take it over and use it as a site to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines

(7) Invite energy companies to purchase the facility and manufacture electricity transformers there

(8) Sell it to an animal feed compounding company and have it as the centrepiece of the government’s animal husbandry programme

(9) Invite automobile companies like Toyota, Nissan, Ford, General Motors, Renault, Fiat, etc to take it over and manufacture one of their components there. Make it a global production centre for one car component

(10) Invite the Chinese companies currently supplying Nigeria with railway carriages to purchase it and start manufacturing engines and train cars there