By Suleiman Umaru
Aliko Dangote , a multi-billionaire business mogul, philanthropist, and President , Dangote Industries, appears to have saved Nigeria from imminent crisis as the North American country of the United States , US, $20 billion, 650,000b/d, refinery, located at Lekki Free Trade Zone, LFTZ, in Lagos, the nation’s Commercial nerve centre, resumes production.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, baptized, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, under the close watch of Mele KoloKyari, and Farouk Ahmed led Nigerian Midstream, Downstream, Production Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, had recently increased the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popular , petrol , from N568.00 , to N855.00, N897.00 , depending on the location , amid lingering fuel scarcity that had triggered off the prices of food stuff, and other items in the country.The private suppliers were said to have taken advantage of the increase in the pump price of petrol to sell at N1,200.00.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, who incidentally as a former governor of Borno state, which is under the siege of the Islamic Fundamentalist Group, Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West African Province , ISWAP, may have known that there is serious trouble ahead over the increase in pump price of fuel with the situation of things in the country that he had summoned Senator Heneiken Lokpobiri, minister of state, Petroleum Resources, Oil , Kyari, Group Managing Director, NNPCL, and Nuhu Ribadu, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, and one-time Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and now National Security Adviser, NSA, to his office at State House, in Abuja, the Federal Capita Territory, FCT, on Thursday, September for a crucial meeting.
Matthew Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, would want, President Tinubu, who had mandated the former Borno state governor, who had met with the minister of state, Petroleum Resources, Ribadu and Kyari, the NNPCL,, Group Managing Director, over the recen increase in the pump price of petrol, to also address the food crisis in the country which is getting worse on a daily basis. ‘’Nigerians are hungry and something urgent needs to be done’’, he had remarked on Friday, September 6, 2024, at the APC, unveiling of the Progressive Institute in Abuja.
Worried by the tension in the country over the increase in the pump price of petrol by NNPCL and NMDPRA, May have informed why the Federal Government is reportedly considering allowing the Dangote refinery ‘’to set the price of the petrol it produces , a move energy experts believe would shape the country’s fuel pricing structure .
Dangote, who could not hide his feelings, was said to have told those that cares to listen that they are waiting for the government which is responsible for setting the price of petrol in the country to decide. Given that the NNPCL and the International Oil Companies, IOC, is to sell crude to Dangote and other private refineries in naira, and not the US, dollars, clearly shows that the pump price of petrol which would be sold to Nigerians in naira would significantly drop.
With the removal of the subsidy on petrol by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on May 29, 2023, and the unification of both the official and parallel foreign exchange market, popular , black market exchange rates, which had led to a sharp rice in the country’s inflation rate and sparked End Bad Governance against Hardship and Hunger protests last August, may have forced the government officials to go back to the drawing board which was said to have resulted in the restoration of the petrol subsidy. This may have been short-lived as the Tnubu’s Administration recently raised the pump rice of petrol by 45 percent , bring it closer to the market rates at N897.00 ,equivalent of US, $0.56.
Atiku Abubakar, a former Nigerian Vice President, during the Administrations of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had given kudos to the President of the Dangote Industries, for his tenacity and demonstration of can do it to build a 650,000b/d, refinery that started the production of PMS, , despite the obstacles placed in his part by the oil cabal , is a clear indication of ‘’the business acumen of just one man’’.
Femi Otedola, a Nigeria, multi-billionaire business mogul and close friend and business partner of Dangote, has lauded him for’’ the full scale operation of 650,000 b/d, refinery, conceived 25 years ago to transform the country’s energy landscape and liberate Nigerians from the economic dependence that ha been holding the country back.
He may have shocked Nigerians when he revealed that they had set up the Blue Star Consortium, where Dangote could have acquired 51% stakes in the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemical plant while he will acquire 20% in PortHarcourt refinery. ‘’We were ready to change the game but fate had other plans’’, he had said . He may have hit the nail on the head when he said that Dangote has dealt a significant blow on the oil cabals who have blending plants in Malta, where NNPCL, goes to import fuel sold to marketers.
According to him, these oil cabals have grown so rich by keeping Nigeria in a perpetual of reliance and who has been made to face the reality by only the likes of Dangote , who was said to have made them to understand that their ‘’era of easy gains has come to an end’’.
Otedola, may have gladdened the heart of Dangote, when he said that Nigerians will support him by ‘’creating an environment that enables business to thrive as obtained in other parts of the world’’.
Until Dangote refinery rolled out the first batch of petrol last Thursday, Bill Gate, the American, multi-billion billionaire, had said that the Nigerian economy had remained stagnated over the years, meaning that any investor who survives in such a harsh economy deserves to be appreciated.
The multi-billionaire American business mogul, had said that the external debt had exceeded 50% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, for the first time since 2001. As at March, 2024, Debt Management Office, DMO, under the close watch of Patience Oniha, had put Nigeria’s external at debt at US $12 billion but as at September 6, 2024, it ha hit over $16 billion, making Nigerian, the fourth highest debtor to the International Development Bank, IDB.
The American multi-billionaire, had said that while the country’s revenue to GDP, ratio, has grown, exponentially, it is still lower to what it was some 15 years ago. He had alluded to the fact that Nigeria spends less per Capital income on its people than other African countries with a fraction of the country’s wealth which ought not to be the case.
