Nigeria Made Dangote A Colossus, It Must Now Handle Him Wisely

 By Olu Fasan

Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, is a product of the Nigerian state. By deliberate policy choices, the state made Dangote Nigeria’s foremost oligarch with presidents on speed dial. However, recent rifts between Dangote’s oil refinery and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, as well as the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, not to mention the raid on his business headquarters by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, suggest that all is not well with the long-running relationship between Dangote and the state. Yet, having turned Dangote into a commercial Leviathan, the state must now wisely recalibrate and manage the relationship.  

*Dangote 

To be clear, Dangote was not born poor. He was born into wealth and became a millionaire very early in life. However, his transition from a millionaire to Africa’s richest man would not have happened without a leg-up from the state, without special favours and preferential treatment from the Nigerian state. To this credit, Dangote himself admits this. Before we come to the refinery saga, let’s tell the fascinating story, as Dangote himself narrated it.

Tinubu’s First-Year Assessment: Mark: 37%; Grade: Fail!

 By Olu Fasan

Dear readers, I am wearing my academic cap this week, and assessing the first-year performance of Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president since May 29 last year. In fact, I have marked Tinubu’s first-year assessment. The result? He failed badly. He scored an abysmal 37 per cent!

*Tinubu

Earlier this week, Tinubu marked his own exam paper and awarded himself a pass mark. He said he met Nigeria bleeding and stopped the bleeding. That’s utterly ludicrous, given that most Nigerians have been trapped in unimaginable misery and anguish over the past one year, and the fundamentals of Nigeria’s economy and social fabric have crumbled further in the past year. Yet, Tinubu has cheerleaders. One of them is Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, who said Tinubu “has laid the groundwork for progress” in his first year. What an outlandish thing to say! Well, for me, Tinubu failed his first-year assessment.

Is Dave Umahi Also Igbo?

 By Ugo Onuoha

Yes, he is. A bonafide Igbo for that matter. After all, he was a two term governor of Ebonyi, one of the five states in the south east of the country. And south east is the core of the Igbo nation. It really does not matter that some elements in Ebonyi state do not really see themselves as Igbo. 

*Umahi and Obi 

There are many dialects of the Igbo language. Sure. But there is something common in the dialects- almost all Igbo people understand and comprehend themselves no matter the dialect they speak. However, there is a particular part of Ebonyi state who, when they speak their dialect, the typical Igbo person from outside their community will never make out any meaning from their words. This assertion is not designed to exclude or make any part of the south east less Igbo. 

Killing Nigerian Economy And Killing Nigerians!

 By Kenneth Okonkwo

John Locke was a renowned human rights activist of the natural law school of thought. He wrote that certain rights, self-evidently, pertain to individuals by virtue of their being human beings. In his words, man entered into a social contract by which he surrendered to the sovereign, not his rights, but only the power to preserve order and enforce the human rights of man. The individual retained the natural rights to life, liberty, and property for these were the natural and inalienable rights of man.

According to him, the purpose of government is the preservation of the lives, liberties and possessions of members of society. He warned that as long as government fulfills this purpose, its law should be binding. When it ceases to protect or begins to encroach on these natural rights, laws lose their validity and the government loses its legitimacy.

Did Buhari Lose Weight In Eight Years?

By Banji Ojewale

A new race of men is springing up to govern the nation; they are the hunters after popularity, men ambitious…the demagogues, whose principles hang laxly upon them, who follow not so much what is right as what leads to a temporary vulgar applause— Joseph Story (1779-1845), American Judge

*Buhari 

Let’s be guided by the former president’s own measuring rod to assess him and other public officers.  We don’t need to go into any arcane research or some tongue-twisting grammatical constructions to determine whether our outgone leaders served themselves or served us. All we should do is to consider the body optics: has the office holder lost weight or gained extra flesh?

With Urgent Innovative Investment, Malaria Spread Can Be Halted!

 By Aliko Dangote

World Malaria Day is observed each year on April 25, to underline the need for malaria control and total elimination. Adjunct to this is the galvanization of global efforts towards advocacy and sustained political will and investment all aimed at ending the scourge of the disease in identified communities.  Since 2000, global partnerships and investments in the fight against malaria have yielded positive results – preventing some 2 billion malaria cases, saving 11.7 million lives, and putting eradication within reach.

At a historic Global Fund Replenishment meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in 2022, billions of dollars were pledged by donors to boost the fight against HIV, TB and Malaria. However, an unprecedented shortfall of more than 50% in global malaria funding is now holding countries back from maintaining life-saving malaria programmes at current levels, from and reaching everyone currently living with the risk of contracting malaria.

Niger Republic As Nigeria’s 37th State

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Constitutionally, Nigeria has 36 states and a Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja. But under President Muhammadu Buhari’s watch, the country seems to have added one more state – Niger Republic – making it 37. The 37th state, ironically enjoys more federal attention than some of the country’s bona-fide states. Nigeriens enjoy more rights than most Nigerians.

It may sound absurd that the president of a country has greater affinity for another country than his own. But that is one of the incongruities that the Buhari government has thrown up in the last seven and half years.

*Presidents Buhari and Bazoum of Niger Republic 

It didn’t start today, though. As military head of state in the 1980s, Major-General Buhari allegedly supported a Nigerien, Ide Oumarou, rather than a Nigerian, Peter Onu, for the post of the Secretary-General of the then Organisation of African Unity, OAU, which is now African Union, AU.

An editorial comment in the Vanguard Newspaper of February 3, 2015 put it thus: “Between 1983 and 1985, Peter Onu of Nigeria was Acting Secretary-General of the OAU. At the 1985 Summit in Addis Ababa, statesmen like Julius Nyerere, President of Tanzania, lobbied for his election as substantive Secretary-General. However, there was a major stumbling block to Peter Onu’s candidature: his Head of State, Muhammadu Buhari, was campaigning against him.

“… In the election of the OAU Secretary-General in 1985, Buhari voted against Nigeria and for Niger instead. He secured the election of Ide Oumarou, a Fulani man from Niger; as opposed to an Igbo man from Nigeria. By so doing, Buhari became the first and only Head of State in the history of modern international relations to vote against his country in favour of his tribe.”

Nigeria Cannot Defeat The Igbo And Yoruba At The Same Time!

 By Akinyemi Onigbinde 

The greatest thing Nigerians accomplished in the last thirty years was electing Muhammadu Buhari as president. If he had lived and died without being president, no one would push back when politicians fall over themselves to deliver tributes and call him the greatest president that Nigeria never had.

  *Pa Adebanjo 

After six years of Buhari’s administration and with only two more years to go, all is settled about the rhymes and stanzas of Buhari’s elegy. Some thirty years from now, people will stone anyone who attaches “greatest ” to any tribute at Buhari’s funeral.  

You may ask if anything is worth the cost of having Buhari as president?  

Before you do, there is another reason why his election was the greatest accomplishment of the Nigerian electorate in the last 30 years. If Buhari had not been president, if his incompetence had not been exposed to the uninitiated, Nigeria would have continued its zigzag path. The one-step-forward, two-steps-backwards trajectory would have continued unabated.  

Scorpions And Frogs Of Nigeria

 

By Yinka Odumakin

 I was talking of how comprehensive incompetence of some of our compatriots who lack ability to lead is doing much damage to this country and may sentence it to death if we don’t reset quickly. 

The wonder in the piece was the likely dangers we face with those who went to hold a sectional meeting in Kaduna and still had the shameless gut to be mouthing “indivisibility” and other words they don’t know the meaning. The apartheid gathering had in attendance all Arewa big men holding federal appointments. I mentioned that those who attended that meeting and sanctioned it would do other million things wrong and would not see anything wrong with them because they can’t just see it because they are narrow and have no regard for others. 

We had yet to put that behind us when news filtered in that the Federal Government which had shut the Western borders with other Western countries had opened them for northern businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. The action sparked rage in the country. I particularly noticed the forthrightness of Mr Atedo Peterside in condemning the largely inconsiderate action that shows disregard for other businesses that have been dealt a deadly blow for several months. Ghanaians who have been taking it up against Nigerians in that country can now see what the government is doing to Nigerians. 

Is Buhari Poorer Four Years After?

By Banji Ojewale

A new race of men is springing up to govern the nation; they are the hunters after popularity, men ambitious…the demagogues, whose principles hang laxly upon them, who follow not so much what is right as what leads to a temporary vulgar applause. 

– Joseph Story (1779-1845), American Judge

*President Buhari 

President Muhammadu Buhari has offered the ‘ideal’ measuring rod to assess him and other public officers while serving the people or when out of office. We don’t need to consult any arcane research or some tongue-twisting grammatical construction to guide us to determine whether outgoing executives have fared well or underperformed. 

Nigeria: APC And PDP In Governance: What Difference?

By Hope Eghagha

It was the late Nigerian playwright Ola Rotimi who first tickled my poetic imagination on objects, parts or things that look alike or seem different but indeed are the same. This came in form of a wise saying, that linguistic form which the African skill for imaginative communication had perfected along with proverbs and aphorisms before ‘Westernisms’ caught up with us. I had just been introduced to the play The Gods are not to Blame as a sophomore at the University of Jos. A character posed the question to the unfortunate King Odewale and his wife Ojuola: what is the difference between the right ear of a horse and the left one? No difference, I dare say. They are similarly shaped and perform the same auditory functions even though they are located on two different sides of the face. 

However, this aphoristic question cannot be applied to dogs and monkeys. For, in spite of the fact that both are animals they are different types of animals. Okot p’Bitek the Ugandan poet wrote in Song of Lawino that the ‘graceful giraffe cannot become a monkey.’ Furthermore, we cannot ask, whether figuratively or otherwise ‘what is the difference between a Rolls Royce and a Beetle car;’ they are both cars but cars in different categories, in terms of pricing, prestige and general construction. If you arrive at Dangote’s office or Mike Adenuga’s residence in a ‘Tortoise car’, the security men would not bother to entertain enquiries from you. Just drive home and return in a Mercedes 600 car and watch the difference! I remember once when a young man asserted ‘all women are the same’ and another man countered ‘all women are not the same; my mother is not a prostitute.’ Hehehehehe!

How Rich Are The Super-Rich In Nigeria?

By Dan Amor

I think it was John Paul Getty, the American-born British billionaire, philanthropist and heir to oil industry fortune, who quipped, when asked how rich he was: “No one is really rich if he can count his money.” In Getty's days, anyone with one million British pounds (or even one million dollars) was rated as “rich” and anyone with more than five million pounds was “very rich”.

*Adenuga and Dangote

Above that and you were in the “super rich” category, and when you got above the fifty million pounds level, you rated as a “can't count”. Nelson Bunker Hunt, who with his brother inherited a fortune even greater than Getty's, was a “can't count” man before he tried to corner the silver market. Asked by a Senate Committee how much he was worth, he snapped, “Hell, if I knew that, I wouldn't be worth very much”.

Emir Sanusi And The Aborted Probe

By Paul Onomuakpokpo 

With the abrupt termination of the probe of Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammad Sanusi 11, we have been denied the opportunity to witness a shamefaced confirmation or a smug rebuttal of the allegation of financial sleaze against him. Is the allegation that he mismanaged N6 billion of his emirate a mere canard peddled to sully his hard-earned reputation? This remains unresolved. It was the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-corruption Commission that first started a probe of Sanusi before the state House of Assembly launched an investigation into the same matter.

*Emir Sanusi

The investigations were provoked by his trenchant criticism of the northern establishment. He drew the ire of his highly conservative leaders when he accused Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari of not only failing to take action to check the outbreak of meningitis but for regarding the affliction as a direct comeuppance for his people’s violation of divine stipulations against fornication and adultery.

It is by no means a surprise that Sanusi has been embroiled in another controversy. For him, controversy is a veritable staple of life. Therefore, if controversy does not come on its own, Sanusi courts it with aplomb. Then the approbation follows. He is seen as one of the enlightened people from the north who could speak truth to power. It was a controversy that he triggered by accusing the Goodluck Jonathan government of corruption that led to his removal as Central Bank governor.

Buhari Needs No Recession Experts

By Paul Onomuakpokpo  

In their tepid search for solutions to the current economic crisis, our political leaders are fixated on two culprits that gnaw at the nation’s wellbeing.

It is either the past that is chastised for not catering for its future or the militancy in the Niger Delta that has driven oil revenue to its nadir.

*Buhari 

Our current leaders can keep avoiding culpability for the nation’s economic recession. The danger is that any optimism about overcoming the crisis in a short time may soon evaporate as long as our political leaders fail to recognise that it is not only the past that is sullied by the administration of Goodluck Jonathan and his predecessors that should be blamed, but the present that is anchored on the current administration is equally complicit.

We are on the right path to economic redemption only when we appreciate the fact that the affliction that is the source of the recession is simply that our politics reeks of a crude conflation of national and personal interests by political leaders. Actuated by the credo of politics that negates national interest, politicians pursue purely selfish goals and present them to the citizens as targeted at engendering national transformation.

Thus no matter how potentially workable the recommendations from the citizens for the development of their nation, most political leaders do not have that capacity to accommodate them. And this is why all ideas about development, no matter how ill-bred , must come from their cronies because they would not pose any threat to their interests. Or why have all the great proposals for the development of the nation for over five decades not launched it into the league of the developed?

Now that there is a flurry of suggestions from the citizens as regards how to overcome the recession, our leaders may only take the ones that would not threaten their personal interests. President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to invite experts to help him salvage the economy. Some citizens want him to invite the nation’s best economists to proffer solutions to the economic problems. Some have even canvassed the return of former Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The former minister has already said she would not be ready to serve under the Buhari government when she is invited as she wants other people to contribute their own quota to development. Okonjo-Iweala may not even be an acceptable choice having been tainted by her association with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when she served its government. She is still subjected to excoriation for triggering the crisis in the first place by her feckless economic management.

How Rich Are The Rich In Nigeria?

By Dan Amor

I think it was John Paul Getty, the American-born British billionaire, philanthropist and heir to oil industry fortune, who quipped, when asked how rich he was, 'No one is really rich if he can count his money.' In Getty's day, anyone with one million British pounds ( or even one million dollars) was rated as 'rich' and anyone with more than five million pounds was 'very rich'. Above that and you were in the 'super rich' category, and when you got above the fifty million pounds level, you rated as a 'can't count'. 

President Buhari and Vice-President Osinbajo 

Nelson Bunker Hunt, who with his brother inherited a fortune even greater than Getty's, was a 'can't count' man before he tried to corner the silver market. Asked by a Senate Committee how much he was worth, he snapped, 'Hell, if I knew that, I wouldn't be worth very much'. In the United States, for many years Forbes Magazine and Fortune, among others, have published lists of the very wealthy which have been eagerly awaited events in a society where wealth is a macho symbol, to be boasted about rather than hidden. In Great Britain, however, wealth is something best not talked about, and it has never been easy to establish authoritatively just who owns what, and what they are worth. Most of the stupendous wealth in Britain as in Nigeria, had been shrouded in secrecy.

Yet, in 1989, the Sunday Times of London broke with tradition by publishing the first real guide to Britain's wealthy, causing a considerable amount of unease among those who hated being on it. In 1990, the Sunday Times repeated the exercise, adding a further 70 names to the list and raising the stake to £70 million. Both the 1989 and 1990 lists which occupied most of one entire colour magazine, have since been widely discussed and copied by the rest of Fleet Street. They have also been used as ammunition by both sides of the Old Britain versus New Britain, quoted on the one hand to show how even in the Thatcher years old money had reinforced its power, and on the other hand, to record the rise and rise of the new rich at the expense of the old in Britain. 

When the Sunday Times published the first list in 1989, the paper commented editorially on its own study, mourning the fact that, after a decade of Thatcherism, old money still dominated and paternalism appeared to be making a comeback. Others, of course, took an entirely different view of the list, expressing astonishment at the amount of new money, at the relative decline of old wealth, and the degree of egalitarianism which had crept in. It generated a debate which still goes on more than two decades after the publication.

Aliko Dangote's Biography - Due For Release Soon

ALIKO MOHAMMAD DANGOTE THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE RICHEST BLACK PERSON IN THE WORLD 9141 SOUTH WABASH AVENUE CHICAGO, IL 60619 Tel: 773 660 8917; 312 622 4403

March 10, 2012

Dear Sir/Madam,

INTRODUCING THE BOOK

ALIKO MOHAMMAD DANGOTE:

   THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE RICHEST BLACK PERSON IN THE WORLD

Aliko Dangote

It is our pleasure to introduce to you the biography of the richest black person in the world, Aliko Mohammad Dangote. The book, which has been accepted for publication by a publishing company based in New York, USA will be released to the market in North America in summer, 2012. This is the first and only biography of this exceptional Nigerian, and African. We were in Nigeria for fourteen months for field work on this important book. We visited the ancient city of Kano in Northern Nigeria where Aliko was born, Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Wudil and other important places tracing the many paths of Aliko Dangote and his successful career as Nigeria’s foremost industrialist and Africa’s richest person.

You will agree with us that the achievement of Mr. Dangote as the richest black person in the world, according to the New York-based Forbes magazine should be celebrated by all Africans and the black race. In the book, we traced the paternal family backgrounds of Mr. Dangote to four generations beginning with Mr. Alhassan Abdullah Dantata to Mr. Sanusi Dantata and Mrs. Mariya Dantata-Dangote and Aliko Dangote. We were able to secure rare photographs from the family album in Kano, including the paternal family of the richest black person in the world. Our narrative included the political circumstances that led to the death of Mr. Mohammad Dangote, Aliko’s father in 1965 and the unrest ignited by the removal of Mr. Mohammadu Sanusi, the Emir of Kano and the grandfather of Dr Lamido Sanusi, the current governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

We had rare interviews with many Nigerians in Kano on how young Aliko grew up in Kano and his formative years in the ancient city. Next, we followed Aliko Dangote’s journey to Lagos as a 15-year old young man under the business wing of the late Mr. Usman Amaka Dantata, Aliko’s uncle born in 1950 and the last born of his maternal grandfather, who was the younger brother of Aliko’s mother. We revealed how Aliko Dangote had his first break in the business world during the celebration of Festac’ 77 and the first business relationship with then 35-year old Lt-Gen Olusegun Obasanjo and the late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. We unearthed the secret of Mr. Dagote’s wealth unknown to millions of people and his contribution to the economic development of Nigeria and Africa.

In our book, we present the "complete" Aliko Mohammad Dangote and his private life; the actual number of children he has, his wives and the many women in the life of the richest black person in the world. For the first time, we revealed the "secrets" of the business success of Aliko Mohammad Dangote and draw certain commonalities with other billionaires of the world. Our searchlight did not escape the philanthropic activities of Nigeria’s largest private employer of labor as well, including his political cum business connections with all Nigerian leaders, beginning with Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari, the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the current Nigerian president, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan.

In the summer of 2012 as our publishers will release the English Language edition of this blockbuster book into the North American market. Other versions of the biography billed for the market in the summer of 2012 are; Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hausa, Russian and Spanish Languages.

Moshood A. Fayemiwo, PhD                                      

moshoodfayemiwo@gmail.com

Margie M. Neal, Ed.D

margiemneal@gmail.om

ADVANCE COMMENTS ON THE BOOK

ALIKO MOHAMMAD DANGOTE:

                                                                                                                                    THE BIOGRAPHY OF THE RICHEST BLACK PERSON IN THE WORLD

"Like any other denouements of memoir books, the last chapter is the highlight. As a reader, the denouement always takes the heavier weight of a literary merit for memoirs and autobiographies. Also the book provided a comprehensive historical account of main events in Nigeria which made Mr. Dangote of what he is today. Excellent job! You managed to lead the chapters of seeing the different sides of the world of business to be fascinating yet a serious path toward success--- Ms Lou Fuentes, Publishing Consultant, Trafford Publishing Company, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.

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"We here at the Northern Illinois University, African Students Association would be more than grateful to have you come and present he book; "Aliko Mohammad Dangote, The Biography of the Richest Black Person in the World," to us during our association’s week…"--- Mr. Michael Agyekum, President, African Students Association (2011-2012), Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois, USA.

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"Congratulations, we have completed our review of your work and you have been accepted as our approved authors---Mr. Tom Wallace, Acquisitions Manager, AEG Publishing Group, Houston, TX, USA.

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"A good book based on the preview we have just seen. Great job!--Ms. Shelley Sapyta Bookmasters, Inc. 30 Amberwood Parkway Ashland, OH, USA.

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"The book on the richest black man in the world will be interesting. I am looking forward to someday reading the actual book… Warmest regards"---Ms Lorene A. Roberson, M.A. Media and Alumni Relations Coordinator, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, USA.

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"I am very happy to hear that you would like to share Mr. Dangote's story with our community as well as assist us in accumulating funds to support our future events. … ACA would love to have you as a sponsor. .. We would include an ad for the book in our program and we could even give you an allocated time to speak in front of the crowd and promote the book yourself. Thank you, for reaching out to ACA. I hope we can work together…"Ms Chinwe Echeazu, President, African Cultural Association, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL USA.

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"Dear Dr Fayemiwo, Thank you very much for considering Yankasa Association as a possible site for the signing of your book. Certainly Mr. Dangote needs to be celebrated by all Africans for his accomplishments…"---Mr. Mohammed Mardah, President Yankasa Association of New York, Inc Bronx, NY, USA.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

MOSHOOD ADEMOLA FAYEMIWO

is a former publisher and editor-in-chief of popular Razor magazine and Evening News in Nigeria between 1992 and 1998. A former reporter with the defunct National Concord newspapers; senior reporter, The Herald newspaper, Ilorin; staff writer, with the defunct New breed magazine; staff writer, Sunday Champion newspapers; special project staff writer, the defunct African Guardian; and senior special project writer/reporter, the defunct Times Week (Daily Times). He is an alumnus of the University of Lagos, Nigeria (BA-Education); University of South Florida, and State University of New York (SUNY)-Albany where he earned an MA in Mass Communication, MS in Information Science and Combined MA Degree in African-American History & English Studies respectively His PhD is in Public Administration and Policy. He is the author of Who’s Who of Africans in USA and three other published books in the United States. He was contributing editor for The Informed Constituent newspaper in Albany, New York. He has written for newspapers in Tampa, St Petersburg in Florida, New York and has authored academic articles for scholarly journals in the United States and the UK. He is a member of several professional organizations. His latest work is co-author of the biography of President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria. He is a writer, author, commentator on local and international issues and a businessman. He is the managing director of Alternative Lifestyle Communication, Inc, and lives in Chicago in the United States of America.

MARGIE MARIE NEAL is a former university professor, an education consultant, and a reading coach/classroom teacher with the Chicago Area School System in Illinois, United States. A graduate of State University of New York (SUNY)-Brockport, where she earned her BS in History, MS in Reading from the Chicago State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she earned her Ed.D –Doctorate in Educational Leadership. She was formerly, president, Chicago Area Reading Association and committee member, International Reading Association, United States. She is a member of several professional organizations on reading and educational development in Chicago, USA. She is the president of Alternative Lifestyle Communication Inc., Chicago, and lives in Chicago in the United States of America.