“We eagerly anticipate the coming on stream of the Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt refineries before the end of this year, as promised by the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, Mele Kyari. This milestone will not only end baseless rumours of monopoly but also position Nigeria as a refining hub for petroleum products in Africa.”

 Dangote Group, VANGUARD, November 6, 2024. 

“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth and falsehood, for the good or the evil side.” — J. R Lowell, 1819-1891, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ p 254.

I deliberately led off this article with the last statement by the Dangote Group in their rejoinder Press Release issued, incredibly on the very next day after the PINNACLE OIL & GAS issued its own Press Release in our paper – Vanguard.

Permit me to start by expressing my appreciation to the two companies for patronising our paper. We need every advert we can get; but Vanguard remains the most objective newspaper in Nigeria irrespective of whether the issue is politics, economics, business, religion or social. All the stakeholders – companies, government regulators, NNPCL, NGOs, activists, lawyers and, of course, the final consumers of petroleum products — engaged in the strife for truth and falsehood on the literally burning issue of fuel will have unfettered access to this paper. The ultimate fate of our country hangs on our individual and collective ability to make the right choices on this combustible matter. We have no choice.

Dangote Press Release interrogated

“An [organisation] is the lengthened shadow of one man.”

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882. VBQ p 105, available online.

 Every company in the Dangote Group, including those quoted on the Stock Exchange, is essentially a one-man business masquerading as something else. Even the Annual General Meetings, AGMs, amount to Alhaji Dangote holding a meeting with himself. Nothing that anybody else says, or thinks, matters. All the proposals, decisions, amendments to the Articles of Association etc, have already been approved before the other shareholders gather for the ritual. The control is absolute. That can sometimes carry unintended consequences for minority shareholders whenever Alhaji decides to bail out.

Since he controls virtually every important aspect of a company’s operations, including external communications, it can reasonably be inferred that he approved of the Press Release cited above. In that case, the last sentences , which would be regarded as “the punch line” for the rest of the rejoinder were very unfortunate. Rather than strengthen Dangote Refinery’s position, they damaged it beyond redemption. Permit me to start from “We eagerly anticipate the coming on stream of the Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt refineries by the end of this year…”.

 Certainly, only the people at the Dangote Refinery can possibly believe that drivel. Even if they have limited their anticipation to the Port Harcourt refinery, keen observers of the petroleum sector, since June 2023, would have been sceptical. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, had promised to start supplying fuel from that refinery by December last year. Three other deadlines have been missed; and the most reliable information indicates that there might be no fuel from PH this year. The same is true of the Warri refinery. Kaduna is the worst case. The Turn-Around-Maintenance, TAM, on that one has barely got started; and, probably is stalled. Altogether, we are confronted with a huge scam perpetrated by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, NNPCL and the contractors assigned to undertake the TAMs. Dangote Refinery people can wait, if that is their choice, but the rest of Nigerians are sick and tired of waiting for NNPCL fuel this year.

“To murder one’s reputation is a kind of suicide; a detestable and odious vice. —Henry Fielding, 1707-1754, in TOM JONES, VBQ p 213. available online.

 Calling the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, as his only witness was perhaps the worst blunder the Dangote Group could have committed. Bluntly stated, Mele Kyari “ has made so many false statements; failed to fulfil so many promises with regard to fuel supply from the four NNPCL-owned refineries that the man has murdered his reputation. It is simply amazing that the Dangote Group will base its rejoinder on the words of someone who has no reputation left to protect. Was it not the same Kyari who, in July this year, told a House of Representatives Committee that NNPCL would be producing 2 million barrels of crude oil by December this year? Is the country anywhere close to that output level now in November?

When the Press Release ended with the assertion that “This milestone will not only end all baseless rumours of monopoly…”,  I really felt bad for the Dangote Group; which appeared like the drowning man grasping at every water hyacinth. The truth is, there will be no milestone to end rumours about monopoly because there are other facts which buttress the charge that Dangote Refinery is gunning for monopoly for reasons too numerous to disclose here; but which go beyond the dispute with PINNACLE OIL & GAS.

Dangote at war with everybody

“War is hell.” — General Sherman, 1820-1891. VBQ p 268.

The US Army General spoke the minds of everyone who has ever been involved in armed or brand conflicts. Troubled days and sleepless nights become more frequent. Peace of mind is lost as long as it lasts.

My worst experience of brand warfare occurred in 1982; when the Board of Directors of North Brewery Limited, Kano, called me; and after thanking me for a wonderful job done with DOUBLE CROWN lager beer and increasing my remuneration package by 25 per cent, announced that they have a new assignment for me. According to the Chairman, “The Board has decided to launch a Stout brand to rival GUINNESS STOUT – which has close to 95 per cent of the market share. We want you to embark on the assignment from this minute; prepare a plan and budget. You will receive all the financial support you need.” As a professional Marketing manager, member of the American Marketing Association, AMA, at the time, I knew better than everybody in that room that I had been asked to start a war against one of the most powerful brands, in its sector, in the world. GUINNESS STOUT had for years held at least 92% of market share in any country in which it was distributed; and the Board was expecting 10 per cent share in two years. I didn’t know whether to rejoice or cry. Here was opportunity and danger wrapped up in one assignment. It was too painful to laugh; but, I was too old to cry.

Dangote might not have realised it when he embarked on building the world’s largest single train refinery in Nigeria, purportedly capable of processing 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day and supplying most of domestic needs for fuel. But, he was embarking on war because the ambition threatened other companies’ plans for expansion and survival. Certainly, no firm would abandon its own plans just because a bigger enterprise had moved to monopolise the market. The truth is, the Dangote Refinery can only survive if it operates without any competition locally….