Interview: Dangote Enjoying Unnecessary Govt Support, Should Sell Fuel At N500 -Adeyanju

Popular Nigerian activist, cum constitutional lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, has said Nigerians should not expect much improvement with the commencement of fuel production by Dangote Refinery. In this interview with DAILY POST, Adeyanju said Dangote should sell his fuel at N500 per litre because he buys crude oil in naira. The activist lawyer also spoke on some other national issues. Excerpts!

Will the commencement of Dangote Refinery crash the price of fuel in Nigeria

Not at all, in fact, his fuel will be more expensive than what is obtainable in the market because Dangote is a capitalist and does not care about subsidy or subsidizing any product. This is why they are telling you that NNPCL will be the only one that purchases that fuel, so that NNPCL will help him subsidize the fuel for Nigerians. You and I can’t buy fuel from Dangote because he would be selling at N1300 to N1400 per liter, so if we buy from him, how much will we sell it? Nobody is going to buy it?

This idea of NNPCL selling crude oil to him in naira does not make any sense. NNPCL is not the one that gets crude from the ground; it’s the IOC, and the crude oil business is traded in dollars. The IOC gets the crude, and sells it in the international trading market in dollars. They will get more if they sell in dollars, so why should they sell to Dangote in naira? It doesn’t make sense. There is so much going on that they are not telling us.

I don’t understand why NNPC will be selling crude oil to Dangote, he should go to open source and look for crude by himself just like every other person. The refinery is not that of NNPCL but Dangote, so I don’t know why the special treatment, why is Dangote getting special treatment? Let NNPCL also sell the country’s other refineries to private individuals so that there would be competition.

If the refineries are in private hands, they would start working and this is why some of us have been saying ‘the government has no business doing business in Nigeria’ because over the decades, they have proven to be incompetent managers of businesses. I feel that if the government allows a level playing field and allows the economy to be determined by market forces, then the issue of fuel scarcity and other sundry issues will be a thing of the past.

Additionally, I also feel that the idea of Dangote being the one to determine the price of petrol means that the system is already rigged because it’s the market forces that should determine the price of crude oil. Yes, governments all over the world subsidize products and services for their citizens and this whole attempt of creating artificial scarcity, are they saying that those bringing fuel into the country have stopped? Why is there artificial scarcity? As at last month and this month too, subsidy payment was still paid from our resources. So why was fuel increased? Who is taking the differential in the increment? These are the sensitive and important questions we need to be asking.

For me, If Dangote is producing petrol and selling to NNPCL alone, which law will stop him from selling to the Niger Republic or Togo because he’s a businessman who wants to make profit. If he’s getting crude at almost free of charge in naira, and under-supplies the NNPC, there will still be fuel scarcity; if he takes the rest and sells across the continent he will become Africa’s richest man again.

So, where is the mechanism to checkmate Dangote from selling our crude oil that he bought in naira at a subsidized rate outside the country? I have not seen any and that is what is going to happen and there will be persistent fuel scarcity in the country. There is no mechanism to checkmate him from under-giving Nigeria so-so quantity because there is no solid MoU that says you can’t sell across the subregion.

Do you see Dangote refinery bringing to an end the perennial fuel scarcity in Nigeria?

It appears that the government is giving Dangote a blanket check for him to do anyhow he likes in the oil sector, he’s the one that will be the sole producer of crude oil in the whole country as of today. Are they planning to stop other importers that have been importing fuel for decades? Or will they be importing and still be buying from Dangote? How many barrels of petrol can Dangote produce in a day? How many is he giving Nigeria and how many is he giving out? These are the questions that should be asked.

One of the major drivers of Nigeria’s economy is fuel, with Dangote’s refinery coming onboard do you see the country faring better

Our economy won’t fare better because Dangote is not going to do Nigeria any favour, Dangote won’t sell fuel cheaply so what advantage is he doing for us, nothing. He has indirectly said the lowest he can sell his petrol is N1300 per litre. So fuel will move from over N600 to N1300, how will the economy fare better? Inflation will hit almost 50 percent if not more, it’s currently at almost 42 percent if not more.

When I see people hailing Dangote I just wonder, what are they hailing him for when Nigeria helped him build a refinery and Nigeria is almost giving him crude almost free. What has Dangote ever done for Nigeria? Absolutely nothing, so these are the issues. We should not miss the point and get emotional about the colour of fuel from Dangote’s refinery, that’s immaterial. Someone who has been part of the establishment can’t suddenly become the solution provider.

Dangote should sell his fuel for less than N500. He’s not importing the crude oil, all the raw material is here but because he’s a capitalist, the man indirectly said his fuel would be sold for N1300. What is the rationale and calculation he did to arrive at that figure?

This means that he would get our crude oil for free and the government will still be paying him after selling crude oil to him in naira. The government will still be paying him to subsidize the crude oil he got from us, what a rip-off to the country, the country will be poorer for it of course.

In light of the current economic situation, how do you see Nigerians faring under Tinubu’s administration

I think Nigerians will be poorer and they are going to feel the impact of the maladministration of his regime. Nigerians should get more ready for the worst economic policies, higher inflation, higher unemployment rate, and more suffering because Tinubu’s policies suggest this is what will exactly happen. A situation where a few people are the ones benefiting from the economy of the nation, you can’t expect anything more or less.

Tinubu didn’t do any much in Lagos, the only thing he got right was propaganda and you can’t govern a nation with propaganda. It’s the same people who were his commissioners in Lagos that he has appointed ministers and those all over the place, so why are they not able to do anything? The economic situation now, propaganda can fix it. He’s doing all he can to use propaganda to govern the country but it’s not working. So, he did not build Lagos; the state was built by several governments at the federal level and the majority of the infrastructures were built by the military government and federal government, because it used to be the capital of the nation.

I’m inclined to agree with the narrative and also he’s not a serious minded president. Have you seen his delegation to China where he went to beg for money? Outrageous and flamboyant delegation, the Chinese are not stupid, they are the most intelligent in the world; have you ever seen a situation where somebody is coming to your house to beg and he drove a G-Wagon to beg? He flew in a brand new plane to China to go and beg for money, carrying about 80 people to go and beg.

Nobody goes to another country with that kind of delegation to go and beg, he should have gone with like 8 or 10 people; show modesty. Don’t go with such a big plane, go with a plan. He’s not serious and nobody is ever going to take him seriously. He went to Qatar to beg with over a hundred-man delegation and they laughed at him and refused to give him one dollar.

What’s your take on the arraignment of EndBadGovernance protesters?

How do you explain that protesters are the ones being arraigned while bandits are having a field day in the country? Nigerians were just killed in Yobe and the government is not angry but angry over protest. Before we used to say God forbid the day citizens will no longer be safe for opposing government policies but that day is now.

We are now in an era where citizens are not safe, the security agencies that are meant to protect them are the ones used to harass, beat them now for expressing their grievances against the government. We are in that era where people who protested against Abacha, Babangida, and Goodluck Jonathan no longer want protest. Tinubu is a prominent beneficiary of the protest struggle, without the June 12 struggle, most of the political buccaneers in power today wouldn’t be here. All of a sudden, protest has become a prohibited conduct and ‘haram’ and this is unacceptable.

What’s the future of PDP with Wike’s continued remarks

They are surrounded by moles in the party, the Chairman is working for Wike, invariably working for Tinubu; the National Secretary is the same thing. All these NWC people are working for Tinubu. If they don’t reform the party, PDP should just forget the next election. Like I said during the last election, you can’t defeat an incumbent party.

Do you see Atiku, Kwankwaso and Peter Obi forming a coalition that would remove Tinubu from power in 2027

I do not see anything from them for now, I don’t think they are serious-minded people and if they continue with this level of unseriousness, Tinubu will win again.