When 2019 comes, the stone that the leaders (builders) rejected shall be the head cornerstone.
When 2019 comes, the cost of economic mistakes often made out of sentiments and ignorance will stare many Nigerians in the face. Although sentiments also sometimes robbed people off the sense of quilt, many will remember how much the country bled during seasons of subsidising importation of petroleum products to ensure stability and affordability, while the refineries remained epileptic.
In 2019, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, currently bearing the burden of importing much of the petroleum products, will be relieved to focus on its core business.
Even in faraway United States, former presidential aspirant Hillary Clinton will nod over the briefing on Nigeria. As U.S. Secretary of State in 2009, she had said ‎that the continuous importation of refined petroleum products by Nigeria was a sign of bad leadership.
“Nigeria is the 6th largest producer of crude oil but the country still imports fuel,” Clinton said during a seven-nation tour of Africa.
When 2019 comes, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, a strong believer in the power of the private sector for economic growth and transformation, will heave a heavy sigh of relief over the removal of an ugly national stigma‎, and rejoice over a promise delivered.
His repeated assurance of the cessation of petroleum products importation in 2019 is largely based on one key variable in the sprawling sands of the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos. “I have made very firm commitment to Nigerians that I must stop the importation of petroleum products by 2019 and I am going to keep it,” he said during a visit to the site of the Dangote refinery recently.
So, he told the President of the Dangote Group Aliko Dangote, “The challenge I will give you today is that of time; I see your time for completion is December 2019, but I am sure you will understand my greed if I tell you that the refinery component should come earlier than the set date.”
In the bigger picture, Kachikwu was not speaking out of personal greed. It does not make any economic or even crude political sense for a major crude oil producer and exporter to import petroleum products with relish as was done in recent years.
THE REJECTION
The year 2019 is therefore a very important date for Nigeria’s oil and gas sector! Only 10 years ago, in 2007, Dangote led a consortium of investors to pay $750 million for two of the nation’s four ailing refineries, which the federal government was finding it difficult to manage. But the Yar’Adua administration reversed the decision soon after it came in to score political points.
“I went to him (Yar’Adua) and asked why he did that. But he said it was because of pressure,” former President Olusegun Obasanjo, whose government sold the refineries, said recently.
These same sentiments have driven opposition against private-sector involvement in modernising the refineries despite copious evidence that the many turn-around maintenance efforts in the past did not add much value, even if there were resources to do one now.
Today, the same Aliko Dangote is the man on whose shoulders the expectations of 2019 rest. However, he assured Mr. Kachikwu he has accepted the challenge and would do all possible to achieve the feat. He said: “On the honourable minister’s challenge, we are going to make it by the grace of God. I am sure the minister will support us to make sure that we meet his challenge.”
Mr. Dangote told Bloomberg later that although the project recently went “a little off track” because of the 70 million cubic meters of sand required, it is back on course. “I don’t have any worries about finishing.”

Aliko Dangote
He added: “This is my lifetime project. I have to back it up with my own life to make sure it is delivered.”
Over the years, attempts have been made by government to encourage private sector investment in refineries, but they have largely failed. Out of the 33 private ref

I smell job opportunities.....

Shame to Nigeria corrupt government. What Nigeria could not do as a country One man Dangote did.