By Igwebuike Ijeoma
I must say that David Hundeyin’s latest intervention in the ongoing issues thrown up by the commissioning of the Dangote Refinery aligns with my support for the Dangote Refinery as a better all round alternative to Nigeria’s energy, economic and environmental security issues.
Even if we succumb to the scare-mongers’ worse-case monopoly scenario of only Dangote Refinery supplying all of Nigeria’s refined petroleum products needs, Nigeria and Nigerians will be guaranteed a best-case outcome of at least 25-30% gain in the value of the Naira against the USD because only the self-sabotaging idiotic policy of exporting raw crude and importing refined petroleum products imposes 30-40% devaluation on our Naira! Remind me the definition of economic terrorism again, please!!
This excludes our jobs and petrochemical feedstock that are exported for the benefit of foreign countries and suffering of Nigerians. And then we pretend also that we don’t know that Nigeria has become a dumping ground for the worst qualities of refined petroleum products after throwing away one of the world’s sweetest varieties of crude oil in the name of the stupid crude oil swap policy of our government over the years.
So instead of this poor effort at monopoly and environmental scare-mongering, we should be challenging Tony Elumelu and his Transcorp Group to invest in a Refinery in his Delta State and I can even offer him the my free strategic advisory of getting Tompolo’s Tantita company to participate in the project as equity investor.
We all should be encouraging Abdulsamad and his BUA Group to expedite the building, completion and commissioning of his hydrocarbon Refinery in Akwa Ibom State.
Let the Sahara Energy guy invest in a Refinery in Rivers State and even get the state to participate in the equity investment.
Let Otedola and others already in the energy industry invest in local Refinery projects and make Nigeria the petroleum refining hub of Africa, at least. This is the only way Nigerians can benefit from the hydrocarbon deposits between now and 2050 or 2060 by our own energy transition commitments at the very least.
That’s also one of the most realistic ways we can strengthen the value of the Nigerian currency. Let us behave as enlightened people and government for once. People say Nigerians are smart people but I disagree by pointing to the living evidence of a very poorly governed Nigeria in the last quarter of a century as not being a country populated by a so-called smart people!
So I conclude by emphasizing that in the absence of this Dangote Refinery, our energy, economic, and environmental security issues will continue to worsen domestically for Nigeria, locally for West Africa, and regionally for the whole of the African continent.
What the Nigerian government needs to urgently do is to heed my call to quickly pivot away from the self-destructive subsidy removal policy and embrace my proposal for a subsidy transition framework that transfers the petroleum subsidies to gas in the overall enlightened interests of the Nigerian people and economy that is simultaneously hydrocarbon and import dependent.
This is the smartest way to reinject productivity and competitiveness into our economy and avoid further burnt-offering of Africa’s most populous country as the dumping-ground victim of AfCFTA and WTO policies! It’s called enlightened self-interest preservation and promotion. This isn’t and shouldn’t be rocket science if we still have critical thinking capabilities within the corridors of decision making and approving authority in Nigeria.
That has always been my position on these whole internally and externally orchestrated shenanigans targeted at compromising and/or diluting the potential benefits that Dangote Refinery offers to Nigeria and Africa.
As Africa’s foremost Enviropreneur, climate change adaptation advocate and environmental stewardship practitioner, if given the choice to make between sustaining the status quo of exportation of our premium bonny light sweet crude oil in exchange for the importation of substandard petroleum products and supporting the refining of better quality petroleum products by Dangote Refinery, I will gladly and boldly chose Dangote Refinery a million times over even without the other manifold jobs and Naira strengthening benefits embedded in the optimum operations of the Dangote Refinery!
I will be more than glad to engage anyone who has contrary perspectives on this matter.
Igwebuike Ijeoma is Africa’s Foremost Enviropreneur and Board Member, Climate Strategies Think Tank
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