Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has warned that petroleum importers into Nigeria will frustrate the Dangote refinery towards making the product cheaper.
The former President made this assertion following allegations by the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, that some ‘mafias’ were making efforts to frustrate the $20bn refinery.
This is even as it was gathered on Monday that the multi-billion Dollar refinery and other domestic refineries are yet to purchase crude oil in Naira.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, to begin sale of crude to Dangote in Naira.
But in an interview with Financial Times, Obasanjo described the Dangote refinery as something that should encourage both Nigerians and non-Nigerians.
He said, “Aliko’s investment in a refinery, if it goes well, should encourage both Nigerians and non-Nigerians to invest in Nigeria.
“If those who are selling or supplying refined products for Nigeria feel that they will lose the lucrative opportunity, they will also make every effort to get him frustrated.”
Recall that officials of the Dangote Group recently cried out that international oil companies were frustrating the refinery. This, they said, is by refusing to sell crude or by selling to them at a premium up to $4 above the normal price.
Dangote also accused the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority of deliberately granting licences to individuals to import dirty fuel.
An allegation which NMDPRA, denied this, saying Dangote diesel was inferior when compared to the imported ones.
The NMDPRA Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed, also stated that the country would not stop fuel importation. This, he reasoned is to avoid a monopoly of the product by the Dangote Group.
Speaking in the development, former President Obasanjo, stated that Nigeria made a deadly mistake by putting all its eggs in one basket. He said Nigeria concentrated on oil, ignoring gas and agriculture.
He said, “I believe we made a very, very deadly mistake. We put all our eggs in one basket of oil. And we even ignored gas. We were flaring gas, which is a very important commodity.
“We ignored agriculture, which should have been the centre-piece of our economic development.”
Obasanjo recalled how he persuaded Shell to run the country’s refineries but the International Oil Company refused. Saying there was too much corruption in the sector.
“When I was President, I invited Shell and I said, look, come and take equity participation and run our refineries for us. They refused. They said our refineries have not been well maintained.
“We have brought amateurs rather than bringing professionals. They said there’s too much corruption with the way our refinery is run and maintained. And they didn’t want to get involved in such a mess,” the former President explained.
When reminded that Federal Government has promised to fix the refineries, Obasanjo asked, “How many times have they told us that? And at what price?
“Those problems, as far as the government refineries are concerned, have never gone away. They have even increased. So, if you have a problem like that and that problem is not removed then you aren’t going anywhere.”
The former President condemned the haste move by President Bola Tinubu to removing the fuel subsidy.
He noted that the President Tinubu should have first considered the hardship the subsidy removal could cause people. And then, think of how to ameliorate the fallout from the removal.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Not just wake up one morning and say you removed the subsidy. Because of inflation, the subsidy that we have removed is not gone. It has come back,” Obasanjo bemoaned.
He noted that there must be investor confidence in Nigeria. “You have to go from transactional economy to transformational economy,” he added.
The former President also expressed concern over youths’ restiveness caused by unemployment. He expressed the fear that Nigeria might be sitting on a keg of gunpowder.
“Our youth are restive. And they are restive because they have no skill. They have no empowerment. They have no employment. We are all sitting on a keg of gunpowder. And my prayer is that we will do the right thing before it’s too late,” he warned.
source: PUNCH
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