European Champions Real Madrid have emerged the first football club in history to surpass €1billion ($1.085bn) in revenue a season, according to the club’s annual account for the 2023-24 season.

The club’s revenue, excluding player transfers, reached €1.073bn ($1.16bn), representing a 27 per cent increase from the previous year despite ongoing stadium renovations.

Madrid also reported a profit of €16million ($17.3m) for the fiscal year, with a net worth of €574m ($623m) and net debt of just €8m ($8.6m) as of June 30, 2024.

The team claimed to be the first football club to exceed €1bn in revenue.

In the previous campaign, Madrid enjoyed substantial success on the field, securing the Champions League title, their sixth in a decade, along with La Liga and the Super Cup.

The basketball team also excelled, capturing the Spanish league title, King’s Cup, and Spanish Super Cup while also reaching the Euro-league finals.

Nytimes com reports that the club’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) surged to €144m ($156m), marking a 71 per cent increase from the previous year.

This represents 13 per cent of total revenues, up from 10 per cent previously. When including player disposals, the EBITDA for the 2023-24 year is €156m ($169m), comparable to the €158m ($171m) reported for the 2022-23 financial year.

The Santiago Bernabeu Stadium renovation continues to advance, with a total investment of €1.163bn ($1.262bn) to date as the final phase of the project, including the completion of the VIP area, events spaces, and other commercial ventures, is anticipated to be completed in the 2024-25 financial year and this is expected to drive further revenue growth.

Madrid say they are planning to build on their commercial success.

The upcoming season will see the introduction of Kylian Mbappe to the squad, who joined on a free transfer after his contract at Paris Saint-Germain expired earlier this year.

[Leadership]

 President Bola Tinubu has pleaded with aggrieved Nigerians, especially youths planning a national protest over the high cost of living to shelve the action, saying there is no need for it.

The President also assured those behind the planned protest that he has heard their grievances and is working seriously to ensure that all their concerns are addressed.

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, conveyed the President’s plea while speaking with State House correspondents after he met with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The President’s assurance came as the face-off between Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayou Onanuga; and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, took a new twist, yesterday.

Obi’s lawyers, yesterday, wrote Onanuga, demanding N5 billion and an apology within 72 hours for accusing him and his supporters of high treason in allegedly being masterminds of the planned “EndBadGovernance protest.”

In like manner, former presidential aspirant and a chieftain of the LP, Professor Pat Utomi, challenged Onanuga to produce evidence of his involvement in the planned protest or face N500 billion litigation.

Tinubu’s assurance

The minister said that at the meeting with the President, general issues on the country were discussed and that the President said he is working assiduously to ensure the country’s economy is placed in a good position.

His words: ‘’We discussed the issue of the country in general and Mr President has asked me to again inform Nigerians that he listens to them, especially the young people that are trying to protest.

“Mr President said he listens to them and takes what they say seriously and he is working assiduously to ensure that this country is good not just for today, but also for the future.

“The issue of the planned protest, Mr President does not see any need for that, he asked them to shelve that plan and he has asked them to await the government’s response to all their pleas, he has listened to them.’’

Obi’s lawyers write Onanuga demand N5bn, apology

However, former Anambra State Governor, Mr. Peter Obi, has given Mr. Onanuga, 72 hours within which to pay N5billion as damages as well a public apology published in four national newspapers for defamation and libel or face legal action.

Obi demanded that Mr. Onanuga, retract his wild allegation linking him to the planned mass protest scheduled for August.

Recall that the Presidential spokesman had on July 20, 2024, claimed in his X handle @aonanuga1956 that: “ Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria and that Obi should be held responsible for anarchy.”

Onanuga’s post was tagged, “Revealed: Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria. Obi should be held responsible for anarchy.”

He claimed that individuals who hijacked the 2020 ENDSARS protests are behind the EndBadGovernance and Tinubu Must Go protest. He described the masterminds as anarchists and bad losers who cannot wait for for the 2027 elections but instead were seeking to destabilise Nigeria through a civilian coup, and asked that Obi be held responsible if the protest turned into anarchy.

Onanuga warned that the protesters’ call for revolution and ending an elected government amounted to high treason and called on security agencies to take action against those threatening Nigeria’s stability.

The post read in part: “Obi should be held responsible for anarchy. Don’t be fooled: the malcontents planning to stage nationwide protests are supporters of Peter Obi, the failed presidential candidate of the Labour Party. And he should be held responsible for whatever crisis emanates from the action.

“The protest planners are also the same people who were instigated by IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu to launch the destructive #EndSARS protest in Nigeria in October 2020.

“#EndSARS began as a genuine protest by youths against the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, notorious for its high-handedness.

“IPOB members planning to extricate the South East region from Nigeria infiltrated the protest and hijacked it for their agenda.

“Lagos still bears the scars of the malicious destruction by IPOB elements until today. Two years after #EndSARS, the IPOB and gullible innocents joined the Labour Party in 2022 to support Peter Obi, a sympathiser of their cause. They are the people spreading the hashtags ‘EndBadGovernance’, ‘Tinubu Must Go,’ and ‘Revolution2024.’

“They are not democrats but anarchists. They are attempting to call out our people via propaganda because their Messiah, Peter Obi, failed to win the Presidency in the 2023 election.

“As bad losers, they don’t have the patience to wait for another election in 2027; they would rather destabilise Nigeria by staging a civilian coup against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“If they understand the meaning of their hashtags, they will realise they are clarion calls for treason. Wanting to end an elected government is high treason.

“Wanting revolution is a call for a coup d’etat, which is also high treason. I have been on the trail of one of the protest planners, who is nameless but claims to have an internet radio station, PTM100.88 Abuja.”

The post elicited immediate response from the Labour Party and Obi’s Media office. While LP denied involvement saying the party, its supporters and Obi were not planning any protest, Obi’s Media Office, said the Presidency’s allegation was a ploy to arrest Obi.

Legal action

Going further, yesterday, Obi, writing through his counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme, SAN of the Madiba Chambers, said that the allegation which was widely published in social and mainstream media and read by many within and outside the country, maligned his hard-earned reputation as a man, who indulges in violence when all his antecedents are vivid that he abhors violence even in the face of extreme provocation.

The legal counsel wrote: “It’s our client’s conviction that the publication was a calculated plot to demean, ridicule, humiliate and embarrass him by the estimation of every right-thinking member of the society.”

The letter further stated that the allegation may have achieved its insipid motive as well-wishers from all around the globe have inundated Obi to register their shock.

“His appellation as ‘Okwute’ (the Rock) notwithstanding, the demeaning and scandalous publication has also caused a serious emotional injury to our client, given his decades of stellar stewardship in private and public life.

“Consequently, we have our client’s mandate to demand that you retract the statement made in the publication and tender an unreserved apology to him within 72 hours of the receipt of this letter in not less than four national Dailies to wit: Vanguard, THISDAY, Punch and The Cable, including your verified X”@aonanuga1956.

“Our client is also making an unequivocal demand for the monetary damage of N5b for the embarrassment your defamatory publication has caused him and his family.”

The letter further read: “In the event of your failure to meet the demands set out above, our client shall be constrained to approach a court of competent jurisdiction and take legal action against you for defamation and libel.”

Utomi vows to sue Onanuga for N500bn if…

Also, renowned political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, who denied involvement in the planned protest, vowed to sue Onanuga.

Reacting in a statement he personally signed, Utomi advised Onanuga to withdraw his statement or provide evidence of his claims.

He warned that he would sue Onanuga and claim N500bn if he failed to provide sophisticated evidence.

“If no evidence of Mr. Onanuga’s false assertion is shown I will assume it reasonable that the object is to water the ground for false treasonable felony charges that can result in the claim of one’s life. I intend to therefore proceed to the international criminal and other human rights courts if a reasonable explanation is not forthcoming.

“I will also have no choice but to institute a claim of N500 Billon for fake news, hate speech and intent to procure state murder of an innocent citizen. If judicial capture makes justice problematic in Nigeria I expect that I can trust extra-national institutions and global human solidarity.”

Onanuga’s evil incitement against Obi will fail —MASSOB

Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has frowned at Onanuga’s attack on Obi, saying that the incitement against Obi would come to nought.

The group advised Onanuga and the Federal Government to leave Obi alone and focus on how to save Nigerians who are starving to death.

“The heavy and massive incoming protest against hunger, high cost of living, government high corruption, impunity and government insensitivity against the welfare of the citizens is not planned or orchestrated by Mr. Peter Obi or his nationwide supporters.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria led Bola Tinubu knows that the protests are neither motivated nor influenced by Mr. Peter Obi but the Northern oligarchic leaders which includes some powerful Northern political, religious, opinion and traditional leaders.

“Mr Bayo Onanuga and Omokri are two leading internal and external figures waging wars of character assassination, blackmail and incitement against Mr. Peter Obi,” MASSOB said in a statement by its leader, Comrade Uchenna Madu.

Allegation against Obi, reckless —SERG

Also reacting, the South-East Revival Group, SERG, condemner Onanuga’s allegation against Obi.

In a statement by its National Secretary, Hon. Agu Chineme, the SERG said “this shameful position by a government that has chosen to spread falsehoods and lies about Peter Obi instead of finding ways to help hungry and suffering masses of Nigeria who are struggling to find their next meal amid insecurity, unemployment, and lack of access to adequate healthcare across the country is unacceptable.”

The frontline South-East socio-political pressure group urged the Federal Government not to politicize hunger and deprivation in the land.

It warned that “President Tinubu’s handlers could plunge the country into chaos with their reckless propaganda and desperation to continue the now nine years of blame games” of successive All Progressives Congress, APC administrations.

[Vanguard]

Aliko Dangote deserves our collective support and official encouragement. I told him the day I visited his plant that he’s “an authentic African hero and a real icon”, and I meant that from the bottom of my heart. As an investor and businessman, he’s succeeded where our government has failed. He has built a huge business empire consisting of manufacturing, oil and gas, agriculture, fertiliser and petrochemicals and will earn more than Nigeria next year. For the 2025 FY, the Dangote Group is expecting to gross a total revenue of $30 billion, with the refinery contributing $19.5b; fertiliser, $2.5b; oil and gas, $1.5b and cement $6b.

Nigeria is projected to earn about $22 billion revenue from crude oil exports next year (Given the huge oil theft from the Niger Delta, the bulk of Nigeria’s oil production is currently coming from the deep-water terrains which are operating under the PSC fiscal regime. Therefore, with the projected 1.4mbpd, average crude oil price of $70 and a sharing ratio of 55% to Nigeria and 45% to the operators, the expected $22 billion revenue is inadequate for a country of over 200 million people. Nigeria is indeed a poor country).

The $30 billion inflow next year to DIL will undoubtedly have salutary impacts on our exchange rate. Is this why some people are bitter against the man? He has repeatedly stated that the oil mafia is more powerful and dangerous than the drug cartel. The Tinubu administration should therefore save the refinery from the mafia and protect it as a national asset.

Every educated adult Nigerian knows that our country is run on the basis of ethnicity, religion and partisan politics and is governed largely by incompetent fellows who are obsessed with pursuing self-interest. No matter how well-meaning a government official appears, he’s driven by an innate urge to promote his personal interests above the good of the people.

The relentless pursuit of self-interest and the absence of love for the country is at the root of our national problems. The recent statement credited to the chief executive of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority (NMDRA), Engr. Farouk Ahmed, typifies a good example of how personal interest trumps national development.

He spoke to the press recently and stated, to the shock of the nation, that Nigeria should never discontinue the importation of refined petroleum products even if the Dangote refinery has the capacity to satisfy domestic consumption because reliance on the refinery is “a threat to energy security”. Farouk also alleged that the diesel produced from the refinery is below standard in terms of sulphur content.

It is apposite that Dangote himself has categorically denied Ahmed’s allegations of producing substandard products and has assured that the sulphur content of his diesel has been falling steadily to meet the country’s requirements. The business guru went further to provide evidence that NMDRA had earlier certified its laboratories that have consistently tested his products.

There is no doubt that Engr Ahmed is driven by self-interest in audaciously pushing for continued importation of products, rather than supporting domestic production. A lot of NNPC and regulatory officials are making quick bucks from the importation of petroleum products and they do not want to let go. They’ve grown too rich in the corrupt and opaque oil importation and oil swap business; so much so that they don’t even want government-owned refineries to work.

They profit from endless turnaround maintenance programmes that produce no results, yet those comatose refineries have the full complement of workers receiving salaries and other emoluments year after year. Farouk is not bothered that the country has lost billions by exporting crude oil and continuously importing refined products. All that matters to these people is their bank accounts.

A regulatory authority that talks down on domestic producers and denigrates in-country production efforts in preference for continued importation is either incompetent or corrupt, or both. No matter how wobbly domestic producers are; or irrespective of the nascency of the level of domestic production, a regulator’s main objective should be to offer guidance, an enabling environment, incentives and encouragement to help the operators succeed.

That’s how Taiwan moved from being a producer of inferior goods to becoming a major producer of chips and semiconductors; Bangladesh moved from being the poverty capital of the world in the 1980s to being a major producer and exporter of clothing, even though the country has no single cotton field. Vietnam moved from being a producer of tennis shoes to becoming a major producer of computer chips. The chaebols of South Korea grew due to government’s support. I don’t even want to mention China!

Strong regulators help in growing the economy. The Central Bank of Nigeria, for example, will never get to the press and announce names of weak banks in the country, and threaten to close them down or invite foreign banks to take over. It is also the reason NAFDAC, SEC, NCAA or any other regulators do not make silly statements in the media, lampooning the operators in their industry. A good regulator works with the operators to meet minimum standards. They don’t create panic and embarrassment.

The national outrage that trailed Farouk Ahmed’s statements is a measure of how resentful Nigerians are of endless fuel importation, the endemic corruption in and around the NNPC, its subsidiaries and industry regulators. Their inability to revive our moribund state-owned refineries has made Nigeria the laughingstock of the world and the butt of all jokes at drinking pubs. I call on President Tinubu to sack Engr. Ahmed right away and save the country from his embarrassing indolence.

Your deliverance shall be sudden, swift, dramatic and unprecedented. Your enemies will be shocked by how God will perfect and actualize your freedom. The chains and shackles are being broken now. The slavery is over! Their grip over you is being weakened. Are you not seeing it? God will shock them. They are in for a great surprise. By the time they wake up, you and your people are gone. Gone forever. Gone for good. These uncircumcised Egyptians will not keep you. Yes, they will not keep Israel forever. They hate you because you bear the mark of God. They hate you because God has blessed you. They hate you because you are industrious and progressive. They despise you because you are independent, godly, glorious, resilient and unstoppable. They hate your guts and feel they cannot compete with you. They are afraid that with such guts and grace you will overtake and rule over them. That was exactly the problem Israelites had with the Egyptians. Envy! They hate you because you serve the God of Israel and because you have a great destiny. They know that the hand of God is upon you and you are the chosen people. Yes, they know it and that is why they have ganged up to mistreat, subdue, intimidate and keep you in perpetual bondage. But God is saying today that their gathering will surely come to nothing. Yes, they have gathered, but it will be fruitless. It will be in vain. God is laughing at them. They will be shocked to their marrow soon. Listen, God said that with a strong hand he will bring his children from the Egyptian bondage. And it is not just bring you out, you will leave with great wealth – silver and gold. That is his word!

  When God told Pharaoh to let his people go he refused. He kept playing games, playing god and defying the divine instructions. In fact, at a time he even had the audacity to query the existence and the authority of the Almighty. I believe that there is something that comes upon rulers that makes them arrogant and selfish even when they know they are self-destructing. Just listen to him, “Who is that your God that I will let Israel go? I do not know him and I will not let the people go!” My God! Did you hear that? Pride and arrogance! When these sons of devil occupy earthy positions or possessions, it gets into their head that they immediately forget that there is a creator of heavens and earth, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, the glory of Israel, the I am that I am, the God of the Hebrews, the Almighty God, the everlasting father, the throne of no disappointment, he that owns life and death. Now, does this resemble what you and your people are going through today? God will also deflate that over-bloating ego of this Pharaoh. Yes, it will happen sooner than you think. And it will come in a very humbling and humiliating manner. We have seen it before and it will happen again. Listen to what he is saying, “But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go except under heavy pressure. So I will reach out and strike at the heart of Egypt with all kinds of miracles. Then at last he will let you go.” And further, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh,” the Lord told Moses. “When he feels my powerful hand upon him, he will let the people go. In fact, he will be so anxious to get rid of them that he will force them to leave his land.” Exodus 3:19-20, 6:1.

  Did you read that? Under pressure this uncircumcised, wicked, heartless, despotic ruler will beg you to go. Yes, God said that he will mount heavy pressure on this particular Satanic unrepentant, doomed Pharaoh, this enemy and he will also crumble like his demonic predecessors. Divine pressure! It can come from any angle and in any form. Nobody, no group, no devils, no gang up can enslave the people of God. Nobody can destroy divine plans and purposes. You will be kicking against the stone. If those before him failed, he will also fail.  If those before them were disgraced, these will also go in shame. And if those before them perished these will also perish. The wicked will not go unpunished. But he still has options now. He can repent and avert the impeding divine judgment and pressure. Or he can allow the Israelites to move out of Egypt peacefully.  When Pharaoh insisted that the Israelites must languish under his biting wickedness and bondage, God inflicted his land with plagues - economic, health, environmental, social and spiritual crises. And when that was not enough God perished the boastful and arrogant king, all his commanders and advisers in the Red Sea. The Navy will call it burry at sea. It is a military practice. All those acting as Pharaohs, as gods now to you and to your people are coming under heavy divine pressure! The word of God said that the Egyptians [including these ones presently harassing you] are not God, but men. Share this message with others. God bless!

Rev Gabriel Agbo is the author of the books / audiobooks: Power of Midnight Prayer, Receive Your Healing, Breaking Generational Curses: Claiming Your Freedom, Never Again!, I Shall Not Die, Move Forward, Power of Sacrifice and many

Fifty-eight of the 164 member states of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) members have voiced support for a proposal from the African Group backing incumbent Director General, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to serve a second term.

The 58 member countries of the trade association made this known at a July 22 meeting of the WTO General Council, according to a statement by the world trade body.

“The African Group requests that the current Director-General make herself available to serve a second term, and has proposed that the process of reappointing the Director-General should be started as soon as possible,” the statement partly read.

“Fifty-eight members, several speaking on behalf of groups of members, took the floor to comment and express their support for the African Group proposal. They called on DG Okonjo-Iweala to make her intentions regarding a second term known as soon as possible. Most of these members praised the DG’s hard work and her achievements during her first term.

Okonjo-Iweala, 70, said she was very grateful for the support from members. “Everything that I’ve accomplished, we’ve accomplished together,” she said.

The director general said that she took the call of members very seriously and was favourably inclined. She said she would get back to members very soon regarding her intentions.

Okonjo-Iweala, the seventh WTO boss, took office on March 1, 2021 for a single term of four years which will expire on August 31, 2025. She is eligible for a second term.

The former Nigerian Finance Minister navigated stiff opposition to become the first woman and the first African to serve as WTO Director-General. Before her current appointment, she twice served as Nigeria’s Finance Minister from 2003 to 2006 and from 2011 to 2015. She also briefly acted as Foreign Minister in 2006, the first woman to hold both positions.

The skilled negotiator had a 25-year career at the World Bank as a development economist, rising to the number two position of Managing Director, Operations.

[Channels TV]

A lot of media people have been talking to Alhaji Aliko Dangote lately; more would give an arm to be able to reach him – all because of the refinery which was advertised as the answer to our perpetual fuel problems. Laymen and women have developed the notion that, when it starts supplying fuel, prices would crash to pre-subsidy removal levels – among other expectations. More unsolicited write-ups have been sent to me by strangers and friends, alike, about Dangote himself and his refinery than I have ever received in a long time.

Suddenly, the Dangote Refinery, apart from pervasive hunger, appears to be the only subject worthy of attention. The opinion leaders are almost evenly divided – those sympathetic to Dangote and those totally against – even though the latter are often afraid to be identified. That is power – the ability to make people fear you even when you don’t know them.

  However, of all those who published articles on the subject, Segun Adeniyi of THISDAY made revelations that are pertinent to my article today – which does not seek to advise the man or even request for an appointment. According to Segun, Dangote was invited to Saudi Arabia by a top official of the Ministry of Petroleum of that country.

The Arab leader pointed out to the Nigerian businessman that only global oil companies or nations build petroleum refineries – not individuals – in a bid to persuade Dangote to stop. He was told point blank that his advice was not needed. A more expensive waste of lunch would be hard to imagine. To some extent, Dangote was right to reject the counsel. By then, he had invested too much to turn back. Moving forward was the only option left.

He moved forward; and in May 2023 the refinery was commissioned by President Buhari who played a major role in bringing about the problems now associated with the Dangote Refinery. On that day, the Nigerian Factor, symbolised by Buhari was on full display. The refinery which was not close to processing crude was presented as if   tankers could line up the next day to collect fuel for our use. Deliberate, but subtle, falsehood is at the heart of the Nigerian Factor. It leads people to believe that they have been promised something; when indeed nothing definite was offered. Americans call it a swindle.

Who promised Dangote 650,000bpd of crude?

“The combination of these two has now seen us restoring production in our country, and we believe that, as the Honourable Minister has said, we will soon hit the target of 2 million barrels of oil production per day.

  “Yes, this country, as we have said, will be a net exporter of petroleum products by the end of this year.”

Mr. Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Abuja, July 16, 2024.

If you believe that, then you will believe anything from Kyari and the FG. Nigerians remember the promises made last year when fuel subsidy was hastily removed and the economy was thrown into a tail-spin from which it has not recovered. NNPCL promised to get the refineries pumping fuel by December 2023 and Dangote Refinery would start by March 2024. None of those promises has been redeemed till today. As late as last month, Dangote fuel was again supposed to start flowing by this month. Nigeria’s obsolete museum pieces, misnamed refineries, are now expected to be fully operational by December this year. The goal posts keep receding each time the GMD-NNPCL opens his mouth without the decency of any apologies to the stakeholders he had misled each and every time. This is not the time to explain why Nigeria cannot be a net exporter of petroleum products. We wait until December to address that.

“Impress it on the mind of any man [or woman] that he [she] can do no wrong; and he [she] will soon convince you of your mistake.” Joel Barlow, 1754-1812.

  However, one promise made by Kyari is emblematic of the way every government, since Jonathan’s has misled investors in the petroleum sector. In the 2014 presentation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had projected 2.3 million barrels per day of crude oil for 2015-2017, at a time Nigeria was struggling to produce 1.7mbpd. In my response, several reasons were given why FG’s projections were off the mark and would result in larger deficits and negative economic variances every year. The National Assembly, NASS, accepted it without a single dissenting vote; perhaps out of fear of questioning a world class economist. Since then, 2 mpd has become almost sacrosanct. Every year FG’s budgets have been based on 2mpd; yet in no single day since Okonjo-Iweala made that error, had Nigeria been able to produce and export up to that level. In fact, the average daily production has averaged less than 1.5mbpd since 2014. For January to June this year, the average has been less than 1.4mbpd.

That is fact; unlike the wishful thinking which is the basis of Kyari’s promise. To begin with, no oil-producing nation can unilaterally increase its production by 50 per cent without triggering a major disturbance in the global market. Furthermore, Nigeria remains a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC; and its weakest member. Nigeria needs OPEC   more than the organisation needs its poorest member. Nigeria’s interests are served by operating within OPEC’s quota system than by violating it. Kyari knows that 1.7mbpd is Nigeria’s quota for this year. Why then is he promising 2mbpd to the NASS?

  Possible crude oil production is a function of the number of rigs in operation and their capacities to deliver. Under Buhari, there has been a steady decline in the number of oil rigs in operation from over 30 in 2014 to less than 15 last year. Rigs, meanwhile, are not things you start and stop like your private car. To be able to deliver 2mbpd of crude from our present low levels regularly must mean that more rigs will return to operations and remain in business henceforth. Kyari has not told Nigerians how many more rigs are re-starting this year. And, invariably, producers are tied to binding long term agreements. Thus, even if Nigeria can ramp up production, not all of it will be made available to Dangote.

  Obviously, Dangote, while embarking on his 650,000bpd refinery, had been given assurances by top FG officials – President, Ministers and GMD-NNPCL – which they knew were dubious. They knew, ab initio, that there was no way Dangote could receive that amount of crude oil from Nigeria. Yet, they encouraged the man to develop a sense of “entitlement” – the feeling that the nation owes him a duty to deliver the crude oil and, perhaps at a discount. It is certain that he will not receive 650,000 bpd of crude from Nigeria. But,   I strongly believe should be entitled to quantity discount; which is standard practice in commercial transactions. People might raise the question of fairness with regard to smaller private refineries. That is always a difficult issue for marketers of commodities. I know how the matter is handled by brand owners. That should not delay us here. There is an important question needing answers which only Dangote can provide – if he wants.

Why did Dangote embark on a 650,000bpd refinery without settling the issue of steady supply of crude? Surely, supplying Nigeria’s needs cannot be a good reason for such a large country.

In 2019, I was covering the Mo Ibrahim Governance Weekend, where Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, sat with British-Sudanese billionaire, Mo Ibrahim, to discuss everything from investing to passports, to even Dangote’s status as Nigeria’s most eligible bachelor.

At this event, Dangote complained about needing 38 visas to travel across Africa. By 2024, while speaking at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, the Nigerian billionaire said he now needs 35 visas to travel the continent. In five years, Africa’s richest man could only reduce his needed visas by 3. This is the best picture of how slow progress is on the continent.

Despite this knowledge, Dangote has continued to build in the continent. His admirers say it’s because he believes in the continent, but his detractors say it is because he gets undue incentives in Africa and knows how to crush the competition in Nigeria.  The events of the last few days have widened that division. Some believe the challenges Dangote and his most prized asset are facing is punishment for offending someone or some people high up in government, while others say he is now facing what the average Nigerian eats for breakfast in the hands of the Nigerian state.

Whatever the case, we know it’s Dangote’s biggest fight on the record.

ENTER TINUBU’S SILENCE

If you have watched President Bola Tinubu closely since he took office, he has made it a duty to make sure any war he fights is a proxy war. You will never find him on the battleground. Nyesom Wike Vs. Sim Fubara, the two-fighting of Rivers state, appeared before the president but the fight continued. Tinubu has never taken a side on the matter.

Muhammadu Sanusi II Vs. Aminu Ado Bayero, the “two emirs” of Kano, have had their cronies go from one court to the other with the hope that the federal might step in and pick a side, but the battle has continued for two months with no end in sight. Minister of Women Affairs Vs. Niger State Assembly on the planned marriage of 100 orphans, Mr President did not intervene.

The most recent is Ali Ndume, recently removed chief whip of the senate Vs Umar Ganduje, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Mr President did not say a word. Tinubu has lived in the shadows while his boys pull the trigger to the shots he may be calling. This is the Tinubu style. In Burna Boy’s words “Them they call me the Godfather, Move like an Italian“.

I could go on and on with critical issues that previous presidents would have stepped into, but the president has stayed away from — at least in public.

This is the same deck of cards dealt to Aliko Dangote, who has been the man in the news for the last two weeks. Dangote Refinery Vs. Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) is in full swing. And while the minister of petroleum resources has called for a truce on Monday night, my history lessons on Nigeria tell me we have not seen or heard the last of this matter.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

When politicians play politics, I always ask myself: Are the Nigerian people gaining or losing? The answer to this decides where I stay on every issue. Sadly, this time, we are losing. We are losing big.

For almost 10 years, we have watched every government say “when Dangote refinery comes on stream, Nigeria will stop spending scarce FX on importing petrol”. We have seen friends of Dangote, members of the APC, and agencies of the federal government campaign with Dangote Refinery.

We all watched former President Muhammadu Buhari shut down roads in Lagos to “commission” the Dangote Refinery before his exit from office, only for Farouk Ahmed, CEO of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), who was also at that commissioning, to say the refinery is 45% ready with its product inferior.

The message is loud and clear to every intending investor in Nigeria; if the Nigerian state could maltreat its biggest entrepreneur this way, then your business stands no chance.

My second problem is the “I told you so” challenge. With this open battle between the many hands of octopus NNPCL and Dangote, the failure of the refinery will be a good chance for NNPCL to gloat, while the triumph of that massive investment will be Dangote’s last laugh. If a good win-win is not sought, both parties could sabotage themselves into heavy losses for Nigeria.

Sadly, when it is a fight between the federal government and anyone else, we know who wins. Dangote sourced lots of forex from Nigerian banks and the Central Bank of Nigeria, under the leadership of Godwin Emefiele. And doing forex business with Emefiele is perceived as a cardinal sin to Tinubu. It would not be hard to punish.

All of this is just the politics of building something big in Nigeria. As long as politics trumps economics, this opera has a lot more episodes to offer. Hopefully, I can tease out the economic part of it at a later date.

Till then, let this be a reminder to us all that in Nigeria, when great care is not taken the man whose head is used to break coconut does not live to partake in the eating.

...Says it has been nine years of Retrogression

The Labour Party Presidential Candidate in the 2023 poll, Peter Obi has taken a hard look at the Nigeria economy in the last nine years of APC administration and laments that it has been retrogression all through.

Writing on his X handle on Monday with statistics, Obi said that no effort is being made to address the growing poverty and unemployment in the land as the government fund its luxury lifestyle.

"When Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999, it maintained an average GDP growth of about 6.72% for 16 years from 1999-2014. The impressive growth trajectory, unfortunately, was not sustained by the then-new government and our GDP growth collapsed to 2.79% in 2015 and then recession in 2016 with a negative growth of -1.58% and 0.82% in 2017.

"For the past 9 years, Nigeria's economy has seen unprecedented retrogression on many fronts. In 2014, just before the inception of a new administration a year later, Nigeria had the biggest economy in Africa with a Gross Domestic Product of $568.5 billion and a GDP Per Capita of about N3200. Our economic indices pointed towards hope and prospects for the future growth of the economy.
"Nine years later, the giant of Africa has retrogressed to the 4th largest economy in Africa. Reports showed our GDP in 2023 stood at $375 billion with a per capita of $1700. In 2024, our estimated GDP declined further to $253 billion with an estimated per capita of $1087. This portrays how our 9 years journey since 2015 has resulted in a sharp decline in our national prosperity.

"Today, poverty is on the increase. Unemployment is rising. Food inflation is skyrocketing. Our foreign and local investors are losing faith in the future growth of our economy and are leaving. Businesses are shutting down. Urgent actions need to be taken to salvage the nation from further collapse and move it from consumption to production!
"However, instead of concerning ourselves with all these challenges threatening our collective existence, and finding ways to recreate an inclusive and sustainable economy, pull millions of people out of poverty, and return our over 18 million out-of-school children to schools, our leaders are more concerned with funding their selfish luxuries and individual lavishness, while throwing blames at others who are only committed to solving the nation's problems.

"I have always believed that politics should be about service to the people and the betterment of society. In the face of all these challenges, we the leaders should commit to inclusive and sustainable growth to end the hardship which has continued to burden our fellow Nigerians. Only through that can we achieve a peaceful and secure society.

"A New Nigeria based on better economic and patriotic thinking is Possible."

Signed
Yunusa Tanko
POMR SPOKESMAN

The role of the public intellectual is particularly important in Africa, with such individuals having a responsibility to promote a cosmopolitan Pan-Africanism and pursue seemingly “lost causes” such as reparations for slavery and colonialism.

Late Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said consistently insisted on the need for secular intellectuals to engage with the public to “speak truth to power”, stir up debate and controversy, and avoid patriotic nationalism and corporate thinking.

Said regarded intellectuals as iconoclastic, marginal exiles who belonged to no tribe and subscribed to no creed. They had therefore to speak out for their fellow displaced and dispossessed, challenge the status quo and seek to uphold “eternal standards of truth and justice”.

He defined genuine intellectuals as crusaders against corruption, promoters of human freedom and knowledge, defenders of the weak and voiceless, confronters of orthodoxy and dogma, and challengers of oppressive authority. For Said, intellectuals also traverse disciplines and demolish idées fixes.

Late Kenyan intellectual Ali Mazrui noted that “we can imagine intellectualism without Pan-Africanism, but we cannot imagine Pan-Africanism without the intellectualisation of the African condition”. He observed that Pan-Africanism’s founding fathers — WEB du Bois, George Padmore, Kwame Nkrumah and Léopold Senghor — were all intellectuals.

Mazrui described the rich public intellectual tradition in the East Africa of the 1960s where he became the youngest professor at Uganda’s Makerere University, engaging in public debates with the country’s founding president, Milton Obote. This was also a period when founding Tanzanian president and philosopher-king Julius Nyerere translated Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice into Kiswahili.

However, Mazrui criticised the lack of intellectual diversity of Tanzania’s largely Marxist University of Dar es Salaam School of Political Economy — championed by scholars such as Guyanese Walter Rodney — which he accused of suffering from an Nyerere-infatuated “Tanzaphilia”.

The Kenyan further lamented that increased autocracy and the decline of Pan-Africanism by the 1970s eventually stifled public intellectualism across the continent. He thus called for African universities to keep a political distance from the state while staying culturally close to society.

Late Malawian economist Thandika Mkandawire similarly bemoaned the widespread autocracy in post-independence Africa, which had often co-opted intellectuals into silence as part of development and nation-building projects. He argued that many African intellectuals adopted statist definitions of social transformation that excluded important non-state actors.

Mkandawire noted that even Kwame Nkrumah sought to coerce the University of Ghana into serving state interests. The Malawian observed that by the 1980s intellectuals were accusing African leaders of having betrayed the nationalist cause, while governments in turn accused academics of engaging in research that was irrelevant to their development needs.

Mkandawire further lamented the World Bank-enforced cuts to higher education budgets across Africa, which decimated the sector and resulted in a “brain drain” of 50,000 African academics a year to Western institutions by 1995. He bemoaned a new era, by 2005, of “postcolonial pessimism”, an obscurantist anti-“victimology” discourse represented by scholars such as Cameroon’s Achille Mbembe, as well as a donor-led consultancy industry harmful to research.

Late Burkinabè historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo elegantly captured the dearth of intellectual dissent in post-independence Africa as involving leaders proclaiming: “Silence: development in progress.” He called for African intellectuals to exhibit “responsible citizenship” and advocated the independence and autonomy of civil society from national governments.

Like Mazrui and Mkandawire, Ki-Zerbo advocated a return to an integrationist pan-African vision involving diasporas in the Americas that could transcend more parochial ethnic identities.

SA was deeply isolated from the rest of Africa during the apartheid era. It is thus yet to produce many public intellectuals with a deep pan-African ethos who can help transform the inherited Eurocentric epistemologies that still dominate the country’s post-apartheid universities.

These institutions often tout themselves as pan-African, but are frequently promoting a poor parody of the ideology.

• Adebajo is professor and senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship.