Ayodele Olalere
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has come out to defend Aliko Dangote in the wake of his tussle with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, saying importers of oil into the country are doing everything to frustrate the Dangote Petroleum refinery.
It is recalled Aliko Dangote had alleged that some ‘mafias’ were making efforts to frustrate his $20bn refinery by claiming that the diesel produced in the refinery is inferior to the ones being imported.
While speaking in an interview with Financial Times, Obasanjo said the establishment of the refinery should serve as encouragement to both Nigerian and non-Nigerian investors.
“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,” Obasanjo stated.
He lamented Nigeria’s reliance on oil alone as a source of revenue, adding that other sectors such as gas and agriculture have been neglected which has put Nigeria in the present bad economic situation.
“I believe we made a very, very deadly mistake. We put all our eggs in one basket of oil. We even ignored gas. We were flaring gas, which is a very important commodity
“We ignored agriculture, which should have been the centerpiece of our economic development,” Obasanjo stated.
He added: “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,” he explained.
On the promises that the refineries will be fixed, he asked rhetorically “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.”
Speaking on the subsidy removal by President Tinubu, Obasanjo berated The President for not considering the hardship it would bring on Nigerians and provided the solution before 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
You have to go from a transactional economy to a transformational economy.”
On the youth’s restiveness, Obasanjo said.
“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.”.
