I never knew that the day would come when so-called eminent Nigerians from all walks of life would gather on social and mainstream media fighting the alleged injustice done to a multibillionaire. Unfortunately, it has been happening in the past week since Africa’s industrialist, Aliko Dangote, alleged that some powerful forces were out to frustrate his drive to make Nigeria self-sufficient in fuel production.
It has since come to light that Dangote’s dream of building and running Africa’s biggest private refinery has been hitting initial roadblocks. One man’s dream of monopolising another section of the economy is now being thwarted by those whose own source of survival is threatened. Why stop worrying about the almajirai on the streets and start caring about the tears of a multibillionaire? As loyal surrogates of global monopoly capital, we should be holding placards demanding – ‘Deport Dangote’.
This monopolist capitalist once denigrated our degrees by offering driving jobs to PhD holders. This man destroyed our rice paddies by flooding the markets with spaghetti and macaroni. But instead of calling for his head; kings, plebs, princes and paper economists are warning us not to maltreat Dangote or else…
But why? After all, while some of you are looking for money to pay your next rent and patronising your imams to plead with God for your landlord not to increase rent in line with the kpalongo dance of the naira against the dollar, Malam Dangote has sunk $20 billion on a marshland in Lekki and redrawn with landscape with pipes and roaring engines. He says this is to fulfill his dream of saving Nigeria from wasting its hard-earned foreign exchange paying for a product that is as naturally common on the creeks of the Niger-Delta as sand is common on the border between Nigeria and Niger.
This now rapidly greying chap from the unlicensed Dantata School of Business wants to tame a monster that two retired army generals wasted 16 cumulative years trying to conquer. I mean from General Olusegun Obasanjo, the man who by his own confession issued the command that ended the civil war to master strategist; American trained General Muhammadu Buhari, none of them succeeded in taming the cabal in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). Obasanjo chose an engineer who lived importing generating plants to augment power generation as the head of the NNPC. He thought that would do the cabal. Alas. his plan failed.
Muhammadu Buhari served as one of Nigeria’s pioneer oil ministers who swore by Sardauna’s reputation that he knows the inner workings of the mafia and is well suited to bring them down. Instead, for eight years Buhari made the government broke paying incredible sums of money importing refined fuel. Things were so bad under Buhari that the man once reputed to spare nothing to fulfill his promise of building one refinery for each year of his first tenure, failed to redeem his vow, especially as the gangling billionaire from Kano shared his vision.
Buhari must have encouraged Dangote to buy the Maroko, sorry, I meant Lekki marshland for an insane amount of $100 million from Sanwo-Olu. Just when Lagosians were laughing at the vision of an almajiri from Kano on a swamp, Aliko went ahead to sink 650,000 tons of sand in the marsh. He almost caused an earthquake from the sheer amount of sand dredged in the process. Then he hired engineers reputed not to build falling structures to put pipes together and declare his mission partially accomplished.
The last time anyone had such a brain wave was when some people in government dreamt of turning the excess iron ore in Itakpe, Enugu and Niger states into steel. They bought a prototype steel complex and destroyed the homes and farmlands of people in Ajaokuta with the promise of compensating their children with jobs at the complex. There was one snag, the same multinationals blocking Dangote today sabotaged the plan with their scientific witchcraft.
Now, who told Dangote that Nigeria needed his type of entrepreneurial quest that could lead to self-sufficiency in fuel manufacturing? How did Dangote think that the mafia in NNPC would wait idly by and let him snatch their feeding bottle from their mouths while he smiles to the banks?
Dangote boasts that he has no house abroad? That is his business, not the type of news likely to gladden the hearts of those that have finalised their retirement plans to relocate abroad. The same people that have sent their children to acclimatise to the culture shock awaiting them when they move. Whoever told Dangote that Nigeria aims at self-sufficiency in anything, is an enemy of this shitstem. Self-sufficiency could breed a citizenry that sees no need for government. If the government loses the loyalty of the people, there’s no need for cash-spinning e-projects aimed at ending poverty.
Frankly, I have no tears to shed for Dangote. The reason is simple. I am a patriot who reads the lips of those that matter in government. While Dangote was setting his selfish date for self-sufficiency in the production of petroleum products, I was following the statements of NNPC officials. An NNPC big-wig predicted that refining 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day would not solve domestic demands. That, to speak in Babangidance is hearing from the horses’ mouth and the eagle’s beak.
How could any patriot believe a businessman over an official whose agency pays a higher salary scale to people that produce nothing? We’re talking about an agency that reserves employment opportunities not for the best petrochemical engineers but the privileged children of the high and mighty in government. We’re talking about an agency that sat idly by watching gnomes and ghommid mix concrete and pour down the pipes of functional refineries and have stalled every attempt at reversing the trend.
These same super powerful officials had once turned the other eye when their cult members damned pipelines carrying crude for their own gain. Who could convince you and me that they are not behind the insurgency in the Niger Delta that forces Abuja to its knees to meet its quota to global cartels?
How does a Kano-born intern who borrowed seed money from his uncle to start a business and by sheer grit and determination has grown that business beyond the shores of Nigeria single-handedly break a mafia that is too big for government?
Dangote’s success might deal a fatal blow to cronyism in governance. If jobs become available, who would snatch ballot boxes for career politicians? Dangote, the apostate, seeks to break scriptures that predict that old men shall see vision while young men dream dreams. Dangote combines both, a clear and present danger for a country with nearly 500 legislators, ministers and aides paid for doing next to nothing. Who encourages that?
If this chap succeeds; where would the respect we give to our highly indolent politicians be? If he succeeds, he might elevate industry into a national passion, thereby devaluing the unearned accolades bestowed on saboteurs, renegades and lickspittles. Nigerians might become disobedient to the siren immunity if private enterprise absorbs the army of jobless youths. Who then would snatch ballot boxes or queue for handouts?
Anyone overtly or overly supporting Dangote should be lumped together with those anonymous native foreigners sponsoring peaceful protests. They should be tied to Dangote refinery pipes in 40-degree heat. As for Dangote, he should be Shugabaed to Chad or Niger! Shikenan.
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