A coalition of Civil Society Organisations at the weekend said it would set up a situation room to monitor the compliance of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited to the presidential directive to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery in Naira.
Leaders of the 28 CSOs made the pledge during a tour of the 650,000 bpd world’s largest single train refinery.
They said during the tour on Sunday in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State that the disposition of the NNPCL and the regulatory agencies was a clear indication that they deliberately held down the nation’s refineries so that they could continue importing petroleum products.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had in the web of controversies that trailed the face-off between Dangote Refinery and the NNPCL intervened and directed the corporation to henceforth sell crude to Dangote Refinery in Naira.
Speaking on behalf of others, Solomon Adodo of the Rise Up For A United Nigeria said what his group had seen was a world class facility and wondered how a regulatory agency of the government could take sides with importers of petroleum products when a local refinery is now available to bail the nation out of the Foreign Exchange quagmire that has made the prices of petroleum products to skyrocket.
Adodo disclosed that the CSOs have concluded to petition the Presidency on the need to adopt Dangote Refinery as a national asset that should be used to liberate the country from the shackles of importation of fuel while it exports crude.
He said: “Having gone round to see this world class project, we are at a loss as to why the government could decide to turn against Nigerians in this manner.
“But we are not too surprised given our past experiences.
“Those who are profiting from our collective misfortune will not want the Dangote refinery to work.
“We are ready to defend this facility with everything as civil society organisations.
“We are not speaking on our behalf but on behalf of all Nigerians and on behalf of our fatherland.
“It leaves much to be desired how an agency of government with oversight functions to guide, to grow such a project as this would now be disparaging the same project.
“This is too bad.
“We have seen for ourselves and we have cleared all doubt as to the completion of this refinery and the readiness to supply all our domestic needs.
“We will expose them all.
“Anyone who is not ready to ensure Nigerians have a new lease of life must give way.
“Now, it is a fight to finish.
“Going forward, we are going to set up a situation room to monitor the compliance of the NNPCL with the directive of Mr. President that Dangote Refinery would be supplied with crude in Naira because we know that the enemies of the people would want to adopt another strategy to sabotage the presidential directive.
“It is criminal audacity for an agency of government to brazenly disparage a national asset like Dangote Refinery, more so when the government has four refineries and all of them are moribund.
“How then would you treat a private investor who has committed everything to build a functional refinery, much bigger than all the four owned by the government put together badly?
“Nigerians are not stupid.
“We all know what is interplaying here.
“They told us that after removing fuel subsidies, market forces would force the price down.
“What a fallacy of market forces.
“Here we are, the forces have only succeeded in pushing the price up.
“Now we have a local refinery that will bail us out, yet they don’t want it to operate so that Nigerians would benefit from it.”
Adodo said that the CSOs would mount serious advocacy to make the government accede to demands of Nigerians, which is not just granting the sale of crude to Dangote Refinery in Naira, but also ensuring Dangote fuel is available at petrol stations for Nigerians to buy.
The group appealed to the management of Dangote Refinery not to be discouraged but to trudge on as they would mount a serious campaign in favour of the refinery.
Adodo added: “Even if it means we should protest, we will.
“We can’t allow this international embarrassment to stand.”
He argued that all the claims about monopoly against Dangote Refinery was just to call a dog a bad name in order to hang it, adding: “What Dangote Refinery will stand for is not monopoly but peoplepoly.
“We will write to the American Society of Engineers about this and the European Union.
“We will maintain eternal vigilance.”
Speaking while welcoming the group, Vice-President, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, described Dangote Refinery as a value adding facility as it will stop the exportation of Nigeria’s crude and importation of finished products, wondering why the government would be against such a vision for Nigeria.
According to him, many African countries have minerals but they are not adding value to their economies because those minerals are exported raw and the finished products are imported back into the country, whereas vice versa should have been the order of the day.
Edwin said: “This is what Dangote refinery seeks to correct.
“We did the same in the cement and sugar sectors, where Nigeria was a leading importer of those products and with the coming of Dangote leading the backward integration programme of the government, others came into the sector and together Nigeria now exports cement to other countries.
“What we want to do in the refinery.
“We have done it in other businesses.
“Nigeria used to be the biggest importer of sugar.
“We came in and changed the narrative.
“We led the backward integration scheme of the Federal Government, and we now produce sugar locally for domestic consumption and others have joined us.
“We did the same in cement by opening up production plants and today Nigeria exports cement to other countries.
“In a business no one was interested in investing into, Dangote delved into it determined to ensure Nigeria no longer imports fuel, invested massively and came up with the world’s largest single train refinery.
“He said he would not take his money to Dubai or Swiss banks as others are doing.
“He decided to invest at home and now they are saying he wants to create a monopoly.
“We didn’t ask for any favour other than that we want to buy crude to produce.
“First they said there was no crude.
“Later they said we would have to pay some dollars above the prevailing crude market price.
“And this is a global market where you can track crude prices anytime.
“We resorted to buying crude from Brazil and the United States.
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“Later they said we should not be announcing the price of the products.
“Even the US, which is the leading proponent of a free market economy, protects its local industries by imposing huge duties on foreign imports just to protect local industries.
“This is a man that Saudi Aramco once approached to come and cite his refinery in Saudi Arabia, promising steady supply of crude.
“Abu Dhabi also invited him to do the same on their soil, but he rejected, insisting he would build at home.
“Now he did that and a facility that is supposed to add value to Nigeria’s economy is being frustrated.”
The Dangote Vice-President said the Company would continue to focus on its business strategy, which is to add value to Nigeria economy through investments and job creation for the teeming Nigerian masses.
According to Edwin, Nigeria can only consume 45 percent of the capacity of the refinery, while the remaining 55 percent will be exported and bring into the country foreign exchange needed badly.
