Stop trying to demarket Dangote refinery, Northern elders warn

The Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, Prof Ango Abdullahi, has warned against frustrating and demarketing Dangote Refinery, saying it is an ill wind that would do the country no good.

The former vice-chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, raised the concerns in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday.

His concerns come in the wake of the Federal Government’s intervention in the lingering face-off between the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority and the management of Dangote Refinery.

The media was awash recently with news on the difficulties being experienced by the refinery, arguably one of Africa’s largest oil plants, in securing local crude oil in the country.

But Abdullahi expressed worry that for 30 years, the vested interests that run the NNPC cartel ensured that the nation’s four refineries were rendered comatose and incapable of refining the needed petroleum to meet domestic consumption.

He noted that instead of Nigerians appreciating the popular business mogul, Aliko Dangote, for his efforts to save Nigeria the burden of continued importation of refined petroleum products, some vested interests are bent on frustrating its operations.

According to him, Nigeria has become the object of global ridicule being the only member nation of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries without refining capacity and heavily dependent on mass importation of oil and other derivatives.

The statement read, “The Northern Elders Forum is watching with sustained interest the unfolding drama being orchestrated by some powerful vested interests to frustrate the good example set by the nation’s leading investor and foremost African entrepreneur, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who has defied all formidable odds to build a privately-owned ultramodern petroleum refinery in Nigeria.

“This remarkable business feat, which ordinarily should instantly earn him national encomiums and accolades, has paradoxically ignited the malicious fury of enemies of our dear country, who are strategically located in the oil and gas sector of the economy. They have been wreaking havoc over the years through many subterfuges, resulting in the crippling of our nation’s refining capacity and the ruthless imposition of a ruinous regime of massive refined oil and other sundry products importation to the detriment of our national growth.

“In this wise, the lamentable and highly troubling commentary against the Dangote refinery that came out from the NNPCL and its other sister regulatory bodies smacks of a glaring attempt to de-market this epochal national achievement and premeditatedly derail the economy from the path of healthy growth and stability.”

Continuing, the Arewa leader warned that the masses who mostly bear the brunt of escalating fuel pump prices, frequent fuel shortages and joblessness would no longer fold their arms and allow a few powerful individuals to continue taking the economy of the nation hostage.

“Regrettably, it is only in Nigeria that politics is played with narrow interests as the motive force and the sole determinant, more often than not, allowed to trample the economic interest of the nation.

“The NEF, while welcoming and taking judicious note of the timely action taken by the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Heineken Lokpobri, to arrest this worrisome situation, wishes to conclude by restating our determination to stand resolutely with Dangote in defence of this gigantic business stride, which signifies the dawn of prosperity for our people,” the statement added.