Christmas surely came early for walking-wealth, Aliko Dangote. He asked for a scalp, the President gave him two heads. The one doing the asking is currently valued at 23.6 billion US dollars. That is half of Nigeria’s total foreign reserves which reportedly stand at 46.7 billion US dollars, a seven-year high. Using the reserves as national financial wellness gauge, it means Aliko Dangote is worth half of his country, translating to about 115 million of Nigeria’s 230 million-strong population. Now-late Ibadan billionaire, Alao Arisekola was roundly saluted in his lifetime as the half of the sprawling city, largest in West Africa by land mass, being erroneously referenced as a man. Some men can be comparatively so disproportionate in status and even in stature that syntax must be bent for them. Using singular pronoun to describe some, individually, becomes a heresy. Yoruba developed honorific “they” for their kind when speaking of them as individuals and that was long before the West came with its non-binary gender pronoun misnomer. You hear something like “awon alhaji ti nbo” despite just one person approaching. Yes, alhaji still identifies as a male and should be pronouned in the singular, but something about him says he isn’t just any man in the context of age, status or accomplishments. An individual can full ground berekete. Love him, hate him, Dangote is one of them.
Two heads for early Christmas hamper even from the President, should not be a big deal to Africa’s richest. The demoniacs roaming about as ritualists can deliver dozens to him at a wink. He is that monstrous in capacity and reach. But the two men in the oily war the President would appear to have sacrificed to him as an appeasement were not just waka pass (minor actors) in the sector, even if they were not exactly John the Baptist of the sleaze-ridden industry.
Farouk Ahmed, the more vocal of the terminated duo, also the target of Aliko’s ire and darts had actually tried the lone voice in the wilderness acts, railing repeatedly against the perceived unrighteousness of Dangote and his $20 billion refinery, as the top dog in the sector. But the anti-corruption crooner’s domestic weakness, exposed his soft underbelly. Yoruba always pray fervently against the enemies conquering us through our children (kaye ma gba ibi omo muwa). The jury will be out for a while on the propriety of Aliko, himself a father, making Ahmed’s children a fair game in their strictly but ugly trade war. But was it not also children’s school fees that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) used in convicting former Kogi governor, Yahaya “white lion” Bello in largely emotive public opinion court, despite the case built against him over alleged corruption while in office, still marooned in the court of law?
A lot of people will argue everything is fair in war and after insecurity, corruption is the biggest war confronting the nation.
Yoruba will also say aso igba la nda fun igba (peculiarities of times and seasons should determine our choices). Corruption is so endemic especially in the oil and gas sector that everything in the arsenal, including kitchen sink (like dragging children into fathers’ battles) would be deemed fair in stamping out sleaze.
But hopefully, Aliko is stepping into the equity arena with boxing gloves worn on clean hands, because he can’t be a symbol of collective hope that the dark days in the sector are about to be over, while dripping with maggots. Of course, the monied man has put a target on his own back by being frontal in his confrontation with the establishment, which includes the President, not only as the supervising Minister but also a major player in the sector through family holdings in Oando, currently one of the most profitable brands on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. In nine months in the outgoing year, the company announced a N210 billion profit. Does it get chummier?
After months of walking on eggshells, Aliko deserves an applause for eventually waltzing the battleground and there have been talks of indirectly doing the President good with his open war with top regulators in the sector, following insinuations that the Nigerian leader had been looking for a way to terminate the duo, appointed by his predecessor-in-office, Muhammadu Buhari.
Truly the wasp-speed firing of Ahmed and Gbenga Komolafe by the President is suspect if his demonstrable poor reflexes so far, in nipping or curbing corrupt practices by top aides are considered. Till date, his Aso Rock has pretended not to hear the senator who openly accused his orbit of extortion to have audience with him. After “rendering” Uche Nnaji, a minister in his cabinet, to the probity crowd for crucification, the President would not lose a second “son” in Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, his Minister of Interior, to those baying for filthy fingers in his team, despite overwhelming evidence, something was very wrong with his national youth service record, which should invalidate his appointment. The president played a protective father who refused to see the slimy stuff in his boy’s nose. Except the expected happened between Friday and today, Bello Matawale, the badly-damaged Minister of Defence (State) will continue to sit in the federal cabinet of President Tinubu despite overwhelming proof he is in bed with bandits troubling the peace of the nation and of the administration. What about Wike, a beloved political “son” of the President? Precedents of this presidency are in variance with the presidential rapid response to Dangote’s accusatory charge against Farouk. Then, bang, bang. Why two heads for just a scalp!
Coming forward with advertised sleaze accusation and prodding ICPC probe appear to me as Dangote just seeking avenues to bind the demons of Farouk’s unrelenting delegitimization of his massive investment in the sector and the presidential axe which came suo moto, must have caught the billionaire by surprise considering it would not be the first time of sparring publicly with Farouk. Then the Komolafe icing! Was the president truly targeting those guys for termination?
But can Dangote himself actually whistle away with his bounty of war; two heads? I doubt, even if he inadvertently helped the president create vacancies that were also filled with uncharacteristically blistering pace. Farouk and Komolafe were “big boys” of the industry, undoubtedly with their own “boys” considering their ability to dispense patronage. Though human loyalty can be fickle especially when founded on crumbs, there are still elements who will be out of favour with the new leaderships and will blame Dangote for taking their honey pot away. Whenever they have the capacity to sting Aliko and his investments, they are likely to.
Then the president. Though his family brand in the sector isn’t into refining operations like Aliko, facts remain Oando and Dangote are business rivals in the oil and gas sector. We wait to see how the Season 2 will unfold. On a final note, despite the deficit in his standing with Nigerians especially the widespread perception of a cruel monopolist that won’t go away, Aliko deserves praise for the battle-line even when he knows he may walk away from the oily war, either badly bruised or even mortally wounded. This is one elephants’ fight the grass may not really suffer from.
Nobody should separate this two-fighting.
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