2027: Memo to Aliko Dangote
By Abu Najakku
I must start by heartily congratulating you on the completion of your $20-billion, 650,000 bpd, single train refinery, the largest refinery of its kind in the world. Like millions of other Nigerians, I share in the immense satisfaction you’ve gained in the coming on stream of this monstrous facility that our own part of the world has been waiting for.
Obviously, this is a different project for you altogether considering the arguments against it since conception and the many scares and vicissitudes you encountered all through the construction period.
To have stayed the course and refuse to back out until the completion of this refinery is a testament to your audacity, faith and resilience as a tough, single-minded and no-nonsense businessman.
It will take several generations to have a single Nigerian businessman invest such colossal amount of money to undertake such a project – certainly, not in our lifetime.
But here we are now.
No sooner did this refinery become operational than it entered into a needless storm regarding the supply of local feedstock and the controversy over the quality of its products. It’s inconceivable that a local refinery cannot be supplied local crude oil; it is unheard of anywhere in this world.
All of the arguments about why the so called international oil companies (IOCs) and their local collaborators are unable to supply crude oil to this important, gargantuan refinery have ended in self-defeat. Millions of Nigerians are chagrinned by the cantankerous and cruel attitude of the regulators who have shown where their dubious loyalty lies – with foreign interests.
None of the explanations by those ugly babies – the so called Nigerian Upstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRUC) – of an ugly and irredeemably corrupt Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) about why Dangote refinery would not be supplied crude oil by Nigeria, is understandable or acceptable to Nigerians.
Nigerians are following this saga with keen interest. But thus far, the Dangote refinery has demonstrated that allegations of selling sub-standard products levied against them are plain lies. Tests conducted have shown that the diesel sold by the Dangote refinery is of much better quality; rather it is the imported variant that’s far below the required standard and therefore dangerous to users.
All said and done, the responses by these so called regulators in the petroleum industry have demonstrated a calculated attempt by them to sabotage domestic refining, distribution and consumption of locally refined petroleum products.
But no matter. Here’s my sincere suggestion to Aliko Dangote: throw your hat into the ring, get ready and contest the 2027 presidential election. Everyone, every Nigerian knows that we have come to a point where something has to give. We either show progress in terms of improving the quality of life of the people or the country falls.
We have practically wasted more than sixty years of our nationhood with no defined direction, no tangible progress, no internal cohesion, no harmony, no economic progress or development corresponding to our human and material resources. We have grown into one large, miserable country of unhappy people, having mismanaged our resources and stolen from ourselves.
Inefficiency, impunity, selfishness and cruelty have hallmarked our national affairs; corruption has become Nigeria’s biggest industry.
We have an army of angry, hungry, deprived and disillusioned youths ready to set the country ablaze. While the followership is irresponsible, the leadership is greedy, mean and totally out of touch, lacking any purpose beyond mass material acquisition to the detriment of the population.
Dangote is a well-known businessman. He started his business empire by selling flour, salt and sugar but it was his foray into cement production that gave him immense wealth. For 13 years in a row, he has been adjudged as the wealthiest African.
He’s described by Forbes as the wealthiest Black man on earth with a net worth of about $13.4 billion. He has business spread across Africa. He has built cement factories in at least 10 African countries.
There’s no Nigerian dead or alive who has shown passion to invest in the country like him. There’s no Nigerian, dead or alive, who has invested so much money in this country like him.
At a time when other wealthy Nigerians are investing abroad, Dangote is investing inside the country and opening more lines of business. At a time when ordinary Nigerians are scrambling to leave the country (so called japa), Dangote has refused to relocate.
Many successful Nigerians – academicians, artists, businessmen and women, politicians – have dual citizenship. Dangote, despite countless opportunities, has remained a Nigerian, and a Nigerian only.
Reports claim Dangote had supported one or two Nigerian presidential candidates in the past. He has been a member of the National Peace Committee chaired by General Abdulsalami Abubakar, which means he has been a mediator between rival politicians who needed to shift from their trenchant positions and make compromises in the interest of the country; understandably so, because Dangote is a big and important stakeholder having invested his money all over this beleaguered country.
But lately, some people have elevated their personal grievances and subsumed their preferences into policy decisions at the expense of our country. They are ready to imperil the Dangote refinery, a humungous investment that addresses once and for all Nigeria’s perennial man-made fuel crisis, foreign exchange shortages, employment crunch and stunted economic development.
It is therefore time for Aliko Dangote to mount a campaign for the presidency to really create a conducive space for Nigerian entrepreneurs, our youths, women and all those other patriots who want to make meaningful contribution to our progress and development but find themselves stifled by the selfish and discouraging antics of our career politicians.
Let’s face it: the President is a businessman, his ministers are businessmen and women. Under the keen watch of a businessman president, Nigeria’s biggest, most important industrial plant is being sabotaged and there has been no word from him.
This is a president who has been gallivanting around the globe claiming to be inviting investors. It cannot be the job of a just ruler to ruin established businessmen and women or put them at a disadvantage just because he or his relations or cohorts run similar business.
Note that in the week when the Dangote-NNPCL matter boiled over, the president received one Claudio Descalzi, the chief executive officer of ENI, formerly Agip Oil Company, an Italian concern.
Responding to the president’s trite calls for investment, Mr Descalzi said ENI would invest in Nigeria’s agriculture. How? He didn’t say. When? He didn’t say. In what sum? He didn’t say. Which location? He didn’t say.
You may recall that towards the end of last year, Oando, owned by Wale Tinubu, acquired the Nigerian Agip Oil Company Ltd and other assets owned by ENI in a deal alleged to be brokered by Gilbert Chagoury.
Recall that ENI (and SHELL) was at the centre of the irregular acquisition of the so called OPL 245, Nigeria’s most litigated oil mining license. OPL 245 was granted to Malabu Oil and Gas by General Sani Abacha and a substantial share of it was claimed by his son, Muhammed Abacha.
In 2011, Shell and ENI purchased OPL 245, “considered to be one of the richest” oil blocks in Africa, in the sum of $1.1 billion after Malabu Oil and Gas was said to have relinquished its interests. They also paid $210 signature bonus.
Having learnt about how the $1.1 billion was used to bribe Nigerian officials, the President Muhammadu Buhari administration sued ENI and SHELL in an Italian but lost the case. In November 2023, the Nigerian government abruptly withdrew its case against ENI and SHELL.
Apparently, Descalzi had been on the run while the OPL 245 matter was in court. Last week he was extravagantly grateful when he was received at the Aso Villa.: “First of all, there are lots of reasons to thank you.
The first is that after 9 years, you allowed me to come back to my country…” said Descalzi. He had taken flight from Nigeria for nine years to escape the attempt by Buhari to make him accountable and now he’s happy his friends have allowed him to return so he could resume the plunder.
Meanwhile, in that same week that fugitive Descalzi was celebrating his triumphant return to the country, Aliko Dangote, one of the most illustrious Nigerians who already has a $20-billion refinery on the ground was being vilified by Nigeria’s petroleum sector regulators and the president had no time to see him to resolve their beef.
It was also the same week this country-loving local investor had called off his intention to build a steel mill that would have undoubtedly seen billions of dollars of private money sunk into a sector from which we have fared badly, accentuated by our shameful inability to complete the state-owned Ajaokuta Steel Mill, despite an expenditure of incalculable sums.
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How can anybody take us serious? How does the president find time for foreign investors like Claudio Descalzi, exchange banters and take photo with them at Aso Villa when he doesn’t have a fraction of that time to sit down with his compatriots to help iron out the differences between Dangote and the oil sector regulators?
How does ignoring Dangote’s squabbles with NNPCL help or serve the national interest? Why has a government desirous of investment kept quiet several days after Dangote has called off his intention to set up a steel plant?
Why is this government unwilling to invite Dangote to address his fears about building the steel mill and persuade him to go ahead? Where is the so called minister of steel? Who’s this government working for? Do we have to like or dislike Aliko Dangote if he’s prepared to establish another critical line of business in Nigeria such as steel development?
Excuse me, but I find the president’s noisy invitation to people to come and invest in Nigeria to be sheer hypocrisy in the light of this toing and froing.
Mercifully, we now know there’s a fuel blending plant in Malta. We now know the fuel from Malta is inferior. We now know the owners of the Malta plant. We now see why that Faruk Ahmed said we must continue to import inferior fuel from Malta.
We have now seen why there’s an uptick in the importation of fuel from Malta. We now know who’s being enriched by the importation of inferior fuel from the plant in Malta.
The attempt to stifle Dangote’s 650,000 bpd refinery, the declared policy of continuous importation of inferior fuel from Malta and the alleged return of the so called minister of humanitarian affairs, taken together, demonstrate that the culture of self-interest, waste and corruption is alive and well. This is a gross betrayal of the people of this country.
Aliko is not just a businessman, he’s an international businessman. He wants to do more for the country but he’s being undermined. Who in this country has a better claim to presidency than Aliko Dangote? Nobody.
So, I advise Aliko to go for broke. He knows how to invest resources and multiply them for the benefit of the people. With Aliko in Aso Villa, you know what to expect from day one: use available resources to create wealth. Aliko has shown more love for the people of this country than his traducers.
Aliko Dangote ticks all the right boxes for a successful presidential campaign. He is a household name. Voters don’t have to ask, ‘Aliko who’? The majority of our population has bought or used one Dangote product or the other. So, he is well known in this country.
Dangote is spectacularly wealthy, yet he’s a humble person. Dangote lives a simple life. He has no house anywhere outside Nigeria. He has two houses, one in Kano and another in Lagos. Lesser mortals, less rich than him, some in his employment, live in opulence in houses in London.
Dangote is sufficiently educated. He studied at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrassa and Capital High School in Kano. In 1978, he graduated from the Government College, Birnin Kudu, in present day Jigawa state. Later, Dangote acquired a degree in Business Studies from Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.
Dangote is a successful businessman. Do you know any Nigerian billionaire, dead or living, who has successfully invested his money across more than a dozen sectors of the country’s economy – agriculture, automotive, cement, construction, energy, fertilizer, haulage, infrastructure, logistics, maritime, mining, petrochemicals, poly sacks, real estate, salt and sugar?
It’s like Dangote has a Midas touch: he prospers in every business he starts. Dangote began his business by selling flour, salt and sugar before venturing into cement production which gave him immense fortune. He was a young entrepreneur who borrowed his seed money from his uncle, one of the Dantatas, a well-known wealthy family in Kano.
Today, Dangote is the largest cement producer in Africa with cement production plants across 10 countries.
Apart from being the most productive businessman on the African continent, Dangote is a philanthropist. His Dangote Foundation has donated millions of dollars in cash and in kind to bring succor to the vulnerable people afflicted by hunger, diseases and other misfortunes. This foundation will be handy in prosecuting his presidential campaign.
Aliko Dangote loves his business but he also loves Nigeria.
He is calm, cool headed, well-meaning and a patriotic businessman. He does not discriminate in his employment policy in his vast business empire. He looks for the best hands, Nigerians or foreigners; once you’ve the talents he needs, Dangote will hire you, no matter your background.
Aliko has more than 45 years of experience using his own money to run profitable businesses for himself and country. He has used his money to touch lives, imagine how he will apply Nigeria’s enormous resources to improve the quality of the lives of our people.
Dangote is a cosmopolitan. He has never made inflammatory remarks about anybody’s creed, ethnicity or gender. In a highly toxic political environment where some persons have taken the liberty to make charged statements, Dangote has always restrained himself from saying anything that alienates any group, even when his vehicles were waylaid, the drivers killed and their goods looted in some parts of this country. His most important and productive business entities are outside his native Kano.
Some people have disgracefully demanded he goes to Kano to establish factories and I say, how is it your business wherever it is that a Nigerian decides to locate his industries? Is it not a free country again?
The Dangote brand is ubiquitous. It is spread all over the country and across Africa. His brand is inspiring. It inspires ambitious and hardworking youths. I was told a hilarious story of how a Nigerian who converted to Islam rejected all other names proposed for him to adopt.
Eventually, he asked the Imam if Dangote is a Muslim name or not. Of course, it’s a Muslim name said the imam. The boy said that’s the new name he’d prefer for himself! For millions of youths in this country, Aliko Dangote is a role model.
It is now crystal clear that the clatter about Dangote’s unethical business practices is just what it is, clatter. Dangote has been found to have followed the rules to the latter, to the amazement of blackmailers.
He has challenged the government and its apologists to disclose the details of the preferential treatment – the so called free dollars or money it loaned him to do his refinery or whatever, or the favours it accorded him and denied others. No one has stepped up to the challenge of this good Nigerian.
According to JFK: “Civility is not a sign of weakness, sincerity is subject to proof.”
Most important of all, Aliko Dangote is a fighter that is not afraid of anybody. He has put his trust in Allah that nothing will happen to him except it is permitted by Him. We need a God fearing individual like him to lead us in asking God to intervene in our affairs and to deliver us from this tax and spend government that has inflicted untold suffering on us.
Those who sold the IMF/World Bank’s toxic economic policies to us are unable to understand that the money gained from the removal of the so called subsidies on electricity, petroleum products, etc., will never be invested in social services.
Rather, the money will be and is being converted into dollars and shipped abroad for the comfort of our rulers!
There’s nothing forged about Aliko – not his age, or his business, or his education, his family, or his health. He’s modest. He’s not a hedonist. Aliko doesn’t drink or smoke. He doesn’t need a house in Dubai or UK or US. He could buy a whole street in one of those cities if he wished. He doesn’t need a presidential jet. He doesn’t need a presidential yacht.
He doesn’t need a long convoy of vehicles, whether for himself or his wife. He probably doesn’t need to reside in Aso Villa. Aliko is a self-made man. He doesn’t need Nigerian government’s money. He has more than enough. He doesn’t have any motivation to steal from us. Even his employees are incredibly rich.
No one, no single Nigerian has a greater stake in the wellbeing of Nigeria than Aliko Dangote, GCON, our foremost industrialist, Nigeria’s leading employer of labour next to the government, our wealthiest citizen, our global brand, the richest Black man and the world’s 132nd wealthiest person!
Three decades ago, Alhaji Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, contested Nigeria’s presidency and won.
Today, we are calling on Aliko Dangote to step up and mount a campaign for Nigeria’s presidency, win and rescue us from and dubious and unsteady businessmen and women who are unwilling to make a sacrifice, who are out of touch, mismanaging us and our resources and living large at our expense.
Only Aliko, the brave, popular, patriotic, tough, and wealthy and God fearing businessman can beat them in the 2027 presidential election.
HazbunalLah wa ni’imal wakil
Abu Najakku
17, Shantali Road
Kofar Kola, Birnin Kebbi
Kebbi state
