By Junaid Abdullahi
The 16th Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, has said that the people in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) do not want to end what he destined as their lucrative subsidy scam
The Emir said this while commenting on the ongoing issue surrounding the Dangote refinery.
Speaking on the argument by NNPC that relying on one refinery is bad for our energy security, Muhammadu Sanusi II said: “This is most laughable. On the contrary, relying on a local refinery is far more secure than these imports.
It is a very rich argument from an entity that had taken billions of dollars in the name of turnaround maintenance and not produced a drop of product from four refineries because it is more profitable to continue extracting rent in the name of subsidy. If NNPC activated its refineries, there would be no monopoly. Then, we can see the sulphur content of its products and compare them to Dangote’s.”
Until then, keeping quiet is the honourable option for it, NNPC and its spinoffs have lost any right to talk until they fix the mess they have thrown us into.
In any case, if the Dangote refinery is unable to meet local demand, the gap can be filled by imports, these people in NNPC do not want to end their lucrative subsidy scam, and I don’t think they will end it.
But as a nation, if we do not thank Dangote for what he has done as an African to deal a hammer blow to multinationals and the rentier system and for structural change in this economy through value added in various sectors, we should not condemn him.
“Also, we tend to repeat stories without evidence. We hear about Dangote getting favourable taxation but no one has said what this tax is, if he got it alone or if it was offered to a sector or to pioneers, and if such a practice is in fact normal to encourage investment.”
Instead of killing Dangote, we should try and make more like him. Nigeria always kills its heroes and its best because of envy and pettiness.”
