How Yar’Adua blocked me, Dangote from taking over Nigerian refineries – Otedola

The majority owner of Geregu Power Plc Femi Otedola said the ambition of a consortium set up by him and Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote to acquire interests in the Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries was scuttled by the government of former President Umaru Yar’Adua in an “utterly obnoxious” manner.

The two billionaire tycoons procured stakes in the two refiners at the tip end of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, via Blue Star Consortium, only to have the decision reversed in 2007 by Mr Yar’Adua, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo’s successor.

The former Katsina State governor would pass on in May 2010 after battling protracted illness.

Messrs Otedola and Dangote would have held 20 and 51 per cent of the refineries’ equity respectively if the move had succeeded.

“We were ready to change the game, but fate had other plans,” Mr Otedola, who also is the chair of FBN Holdings, said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.

The government “canceled our stakes and thwarted our vision. But, as always, you refused to be deterred,” he added, with the latter part of that statement a salute to the doggedness of Mr Dangote.

Mr Dangote’s efforts culminated in the public display of the first refined petrol at the 650,000 barrels-per-day refining plant at Lekki Peninsula, Lagos on Tuesday.

Earlier, the president of Dangote Group held out a sample of newly processed automobile fuel under the morning sun in a bottle filled with the clean, transparent liquid that could easily be mistaken for bottled water unlike the gold-coloured petrol Nigerians have been consuming for years.

“Our best link, that is PMS, can be in filling stations in the next 48 hours depending on NNPC,” he said.

The start of petrol shipment from Dangote Refinery brings a timely assurance of supply as Nigerians grapple with agonising fuel scarcity and hikes at retail outlets following the admission of NNPC Limited (NNPCL), the state-owned oil company that it owes suppliers $6 billion.

Nigerians are pinning their hopes on the refinery’s potential to sell fuel at a cheaper rate than imported petrol, which the country has depended on for years, with all the state-owned refining plants fully shut down.

Landing costs and other import-related expenses will no longer be incurred on the product once the refinery, which has the potential to meet Nigeria’s fuel needs, reaches full capacity.

NNPC has stated that it will operate as the sole buyer of the petrol from the refiner and, in turn, sell it to marketers, a move that will see it play a similar role to the one that allows it to be the only company bringing fuel into the country.

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That casts doubt on Nigeria’s readiness to operate as the fully deregulated market it professes to be, with the government-run company set to act as a middleman where it would have been expected that marketers can approach the refinery directly to get supply.

Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act, signed into law in 2021, may need a rejig to address that imminent constraint in the supply chain.

The push could make the retail price of petrol not as cheap as expected by Nigerians, who are feeling the pangs of petrol subsidy removal that has caused the pump price to more than triple since President Bola Tinubu ascended to the presidency last year.

“The days of bowing to foreign powers for our fuel needs are over, thanks to your vision and determination. You have dealt a death blow to the so-called local cabals who have fattened themselves for years, feeding off our nation’s economic slavery,” Mr Otedola said.