₦airaland Forum

250million or mere 25million



Today marks a very historic day in my Country of birth, the largest black nation on Earth.

One of its illustrious sons has broken the jinx of our greatest burden as a nation.

Today Dangote commissioned his massive modern petrochemical refinery situated in Epe, Lagos. The commercial capital of Nigeria and it’s said to be the world largest single-train refinery at an estimated cost of 19billion US dollars.

Today the nation’s political, business and traditional elite from all nooks and crannies joined other dignitaries from every part of the world to mark this noble yet nostalgic ceremony.

These are one of the days I proudly proclaim my motherland to the hearing of any one that cares to listen.

After all is set & done, we must now ask the pertinent questions which must be answered after the entire razz mattazz has ended.

Firstly, when would the real operational activity commence? Or is this another jamboree to just roffle shoulders, like the last time the president came to Lagos on the invitation of The Lagos state government with so much pump and pageantry to commission a locomotive train track that has been under construction for close to 20 years only for fellow citizens to be seen physically pushing the said train on the track barely a week after the purported commissioning?
Up till now no one has embarked on a trip on the said train track.

So it would not be out of place to pose this important question to Dangote also, as our political elites have perfected the act of commissioning dead horses that would never walk or be ridden in this lifetime

The second question is, what would be the determinant price factor or what price index would be used to sell the crude to Dangote? Are we going to be doing a swap deal if at all who determines the ratio & how would the excess be sorted? This should have been stated in clear terms at the said jamboree

At what rate would Dangote in turn sell refined products to his host country? Would there be some sort of discount, since CBN magnanimously gave out dollar incentive at the least discounted rate to Dangote during the construction stage when the parallel market price was said to be 3 times over? No wonder Emefiele was bragging at the ceremony that of the 9billion dollars loan, Dangote has paid more than 70% even without refining one drop of crude (smiling sheepishly).
When I heard that I remembered when HRH Sanusi said if one wanted to round trip the dollar to make 1billion in less than 10mins, it was the easiest thing to do for those political & business elite who are close to the seat of power or CBN governor.
I want to believe Dangote is so honourable that of all the billions of dollar largesses gifted to him in the cause of this gracious construction, none mysteriously found its way to the Ghana must go bags of his fellow brothers in the exchange bureau, the same Dangote that would owe his supplier’s as little as five hundred thousand naira across board for months @ his other businesses. Anyway no man knows when his trip to Damascus would bring the Saul/paul devine transformational encounter.

Please don’t get me wrong, braving the odds to set up a refinery in a country like Nigeria with all the antecedents in the oil sector since Independence is no feat for the faint hearted, for that i doff my hat for Aliko regardless.

The last question would be to our leaders from the Niger Delta who trooped amass to Epe to celebrate this gigantic step. One begins to wonder if non fore-saw the foolishness for allowing such a lofty venture slip through our fingers all the way to Lagos, when the said crude is in our backyard.

If this refinery was sited in the south South (proximity to the raw materials) would
It not have required we all get a standard international airport close by, which would indirectly pacify some of the agitation of the uneven distribution of Government infrastructure across Nigeria.

Anyway this would be another topic for a later date.

In all I pray & believe the refinery would bring about the much needed magic wand to solve Nigeria’s lingering fiasco in the petroleum industry, because no one can use the same “lamba” to fool 250million people as against 25million.

Nenum

My latest piece which was originally drafted on the day of the commissioning of Dangote refinery

Please take time & read away.

Cheers

Nenum:
250million or mere 25million



Today marks a very historic day in my Country of birth, the largest black nation on Earth.

One of its illustrious sons has broken the jinx of our greatest burden as a nation.

Today Dangote commissioned his massive modern petrochemical refinery situated in Epe, Lagos. The commercial capital of Nigeria and it’s said to be the world largest single-train refinery at an estimated cost of 19billion US dollars.

Today the nation’s political, business and traditional elite from all nooks and crannies joined other dignitaries from every part of the world to mark this noble yet nostalgic ceremony.

These are one of the days I proudly proclaim my motherland to the hearing of any one that cares to listen.

After all is set & done, we must now ask the pertinent questions which must be answered after the entire razz mattazz has ended.

Firstly, when would the real operational activity commence? Or is this another jamboree to just roffle shoulders, like the last time the president came to Lagos on the invitation of The Lagos state government with so much pump and pageantry to commission a locomotive train track that has been under construction for close to 20 years only for fellow citizens to be seen physically pushing the said train on the track barely a week after the purported commissioning?
Up till now no one has embarked on a trip on the said train track.

So it would not be out of place to pose this important question to Dangote also, as our political elites have perfected the act of commissioning dead horses that would never walk or be ridden in this lifetime

The second question is, what would be the determinant price factor or what price index would be used to sell the crude to Dangote? Are we going to be doing a swap deal if at all who determines the ratio & how would the excess be sorted? This should have been stated in clear terms at the said jamboree

At what rate would Dangote in turn sell refined products to his host country? Would there be some sort of discount, since CBN magnanimously gave out dollar incentive at the least discounted rate to Dangote during the construction stage when the parallel market price was said to be 3 times over? No wonder Emefiele was bragging at the ceremony that of the 9billion dollars loan, Dangote has paid more than 70% even without refining one drop of crude (smiling sheepishly).
When I heard that I remembered when HRH Sanusi said if one wanted to round trip the dollar to make 1billion in less than 10mins, it was the easiest thing to do for those political & business elite who are close to the seat of power or CBN governor.
I want to believe Dangote is so honourable that of all the billions of dollar largesses gifted to him in the cause of this gracious construction, none mysteriously found its way to the Ghana must go bags of his fellow brothers in the exchange bureau, the same Dangote that would owe his supplier’s as little as five hundred thousand naira across board for months @ his other businesses. Anyway no man knows when his trip to Damascus would bring the Saul/paul devine transformational encounter.

Please don’t get me wrong, braving the odds to set up a refinery in a country like Nigeria with all the antecedents in the oil sector since Independence is no feat for the faint hearted, for that i doff my hat for Aliko regardless.

The last question would be to our leaders from the Niger Delta who trooped amass to Epe to celebrate this gigantic step. One begins to wonder if non fore-saw the foolishness for allowing such a lofty venture slip through our fingers all the way to Lagos, when the said crude is in our backyard.

If this refinery was sited in the south South (proximity to the raw materials) would
It not have required we all get a standard international airport close by, which would indirectly pacify some of the agitation of the uneven distribution of Government infrastructure across Nigeria.

Anyway this would be another topic for a later date.

In all I pray & believe the refinery would bring about the much needed magic wand to solve Nigeria’s lingering fiasco in the petroleum industry, because no one can use the same “lamba” to fool 250million people as against 25million.

Nenum

Dey play!