By Steve Osuji
POLITICS AS POISON: Three brazen actions of President Bola Tinubu have harmed Nigeria’s economy in the past one year more than an earthquake. Let’s call them the on-going Dangote damage, the Emefiele miasma and the Landmark madness.
These events have shown up Tinubu as a mere political animal for whom politics is an end by itself. They have helped to confirm that politics could be deployed as a most potent poison and as the very antidote to economic development.
THE DANGOTE DAMAGE: In the last couple of weeks, the capitalist world has seen one of its gold card members suddenly stripped and left running helter-skelter in his birthday suit.
Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote has been consistently branded Africa’s richest man in the last decade by Forbes Magazine, the gilt-edged capitalist tool. Dangote has therefore earned his place among the pantheon of the gods of mammon in this age. This exclusive set live with the joy of global face recognition and all the privileges that go with it.
And Nigeria’s Aliko, as we fondly call him, is a poster boy of this billionaires’ club (billionaire in dollars mind you). His handsome and indeed, cherubic face and gentle mien belie the bloody-minded money shark he is.
The Dangote story, like say, Jack Ma’s or even Elon Musk’s is a tome.
Let abridge and cut to the bone by stating that Aliko built his world acclaimed wealth on the carcasses of competition and the largesse of state rent. Aliko is a red-eye barracuda and formless behemoth who brooks no opposition in the sea or the wilds. In Nigeria and indeed Africa he has held sway in any line of business he ventured into.
In the last decade he reached his grubby hands into oil and gas and has just completed what’s probably the largest crude oil refining capacity to be found anywhere.
Hydrocarbons refining is probably the toughest business to engage in today; building a whale -sized refinery in the Third World is nigh impossible, but being assailed by a third rate leadership is worst of all.
Right now, the Aliko brand and his monstrous new baby is being badly diminished and may well come crashing. Perhaps they have done full cycle; vicious cycle if you like.
Love him or hate him, he’s an empire builder and he has built massively in Africa. Aliko has created the most jobs (the most jobs in Africa after governments. In fact, we can say he has created the most meaningful jobs all round.
But Aliko is in dire straits today. President Tinubu who also dubiously doubles as Nigeria’s oil minister is not fazed by the acclaimed Aliko aura and wiles. The barracuda has swam to shallow waters of oil & gas and Tinubu would rather watch him stranded there, gasping for air.
STUPID FRANCHISE: Today, Nigeria is a sole franchisee of a most stupid situation: for over three decades, Nigeria has been unable to sustain her crude oil refineries. She has been spending scarce foreign exchange importing every petroleum product she was meant to be exporting. This or course, has left her economy prostrate.
Now, she has capacity to refine petroleum products to serve the entire Africa, thanks to the brand new Dangote Refinery. But guess what? The Refinery can’t find crude. And guess what again? Dangote refinery can’t get crude from the open market. It’s being hampered at home by vicious politics and stymied abroad by competition.
Right now Aliko is caught up between a rock and a hard place. The taciturn mogul has been making viral posts on social media like a fledgling content creator.
IT’S POLITICS, STUPID: The crux of the matter, however, is that for the first time, he got his politics wrong. He hedged his bet poorly during the last Presidential election in Nigeria. Said to have thrown his weight behind the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar, Tinubu eventually won, nay, he got the presidency and he’s not given to statesmanship. Tinubu is apparently extracting his pound of flesh with unflinching barbarity; in fact, with a cudgel! As president and oil minister, one word, one directive would set Dangote refining plants humming with joy. Nigeria’s economy would heave a huge relieve in saved forex and cheaper fuels for the failing economy and withering populace. But let the economy fail and let the populace wither and let the big fish thrash! So Tinubu seems have resolved concerning Dangote and his monstrous refinery. It’s politics, stupid!
THE EMEFIELE MIASMA: The same pernicious politics has also kept former Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele on the hop since the incumbent president ascended power. Emefiele, an accomplished banker before he was appointed CBN governor, headed the apex bank for nine years.
Under former President Muhammadu Buhari, Emefiele was the economic backbone of the regime. He didn’t only head the top bank, he was de facto chief economist and coordinator of the economy. Through eight years, the economic system was not anywhere perfect, but it was such that you could plan and project with the currency, inflation was kept in check, import was controlled while targeted development finance funding kept up production. But, like Aliko, Emefiele got his politics wrong as well. He was not only seen to have worked against Candidate Tinubu, but he was almost goaded to snatch the coveted party ticket for himself. When that failed, he and the former president tried to frustrate the Tinubu ticket by a sudden currency change policy meant to curb vote buying, ostensibly.
An unforgiving Tinubu has put Emefiele on the leash and has dragged him through hell and high waters since he was sworn in last year. The president seems intent on sending Emefiele to jail after stripping him naked. Yet nothing can be pinned on him after one year of intense search. Billions of naira has been deployed to investigating him, all the requisite paraphernalia of government has been unleashed to scrutinise him in the last one year, yet nothing tangible to hold against him before the law. It’s political vendetta writ large.
THE LANDMARK MADNESS: The third case concerns a certain high-end beachfront entertainment centre named Landmark. It’s probably the best of such facility in the land. But it was wilfully and unconscionably destroyed by this government early in the year. Why? It was perceived to be the haven of ‘Obidients’, the amorphous supporters of Peter Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last election. In spite of the wailings of the generality of Nigerians, the mammoth investment was demobilised and destroyed under the pretext of building a so-called Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
But sorrow knew no end when the minister in charge returned to tell the world the route of his magical highway had changed. It was not supposed to slash through the Landmark beachfront structure in the first place. The edifice had been breached to the point of forcing it to close. Not a word of apology has been heard not to mention compensation.
Verdict: Vicious political vendetta.
NOW THE ENDGAME? We aver that President Tinubu has spared more thoughts and dissipated more energy, pursuing his ‘political enemies’ in the last one year than he has in running the country.
Now Nigerians threaten to march against him because he has done little to improve their lot since he took over last May. In fact, he has sent most of the populace to hell, and that seems like putting it mildly. More appropriately, Tinubu’s Presidency has been RENEWED HELL!
If only he would forget about the last election for a while, reconcile himself to the fact of his presidency, act presidential and stop antagonising those who might help him succeed. Time is short.
Steve Osuji lives in Lagos. He can be reached via: steve.osuji@gmail.com