Dear Joseph Edgar,
Your latest submission on Aliko Dangote’s “rant” about the leadership of NMDPR and other matters leaves open-minded people like me fearing for Aliko Dangote’s life. According to your latest write-up, “I must say categorically that what I am seeing evolving is not making me confident of free and fair play in the open market”, you quipped. What does this mean? Does Aliko owe you or any other Nigerian an explanation for taking a calculated business risk worth more than $20 billion as investment in a single refinery with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day? Who stopped you, me or any other Nigerian from venturing? Let us assume that we failed, the question would then be who and who tried? It is crucial that “we all,” as moralists, begin to distinguish between the tenets and true meaning of business adventure, and the broader ideology behind philanthropy, good moral standing, and the desire “to make heaven”. While I admit that the entire trajectory can indeed lead one “into heaven”, heaven helps those who help themselves the saying goes.
The general theme of your write-up is one of the significant lessons drawn from Acemoglu and Robinson’s (2012) book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. The authors found that rich nations emphasised inclusiveness to enable growth. Issues like broad political/economic rights, effective legal ownership of assets without government interference, operating within a free and fair legal jurisdiction, encouraged by a culture that is averse to sleaze, graft, and other underhand practices, can only propel economic growth, empowering people, providing security, food, jobs and other opportunities. The authors emphasised freedom, associated with property access and legitimate ownership rights, which are founded on the principles of the rule of law and fair practice. Such an atmosphere, they further argued, would guarantee innovation, growth, and economic prosperity for the nation.
According to the same authors, nations fail due to certain scenarios that show up in the form of extractive and non-inclusive institutions (both political and economic), which are often a legacy of colonialism and lead to poor governance, political instability, and limited technological progress. These issues are exacerbated by political rent-seeking and other underhanded practices that harm a nation’s overall economic well-being. Other factors they identified include geographical challenges, conflicts or strife, inadequate infrastructure (such as poor road networks and an unreliable public electricity supply), and the lack of safety and security for the general population.
They also identified resource curse as a factor. Paradoxically, countries rich in natural resources sometimes experience stagnation when investment is focused solely on extraction, leading to government mismanagement and neglect of other sectors. In Nigeria, for example, we have failed to achieve the proper integration of our extractive industries with enhanced value addition; as a result, we continually fail to realise the full value-adding potential across the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors of the extractive industry.
Before 1978, China was a nation struggling with underdevelopment, caught up in an ideological war as a “socialist state” seeking to meet the needs of all its people. Hope for the people was at its lowest until Deng Xiaoping emerged, who famously declared that “It does not matter whether a cat is white or black so long as it catches mice.” Consequently, the ideological demagogue that had held China back became a thing of the past as the country opened and its economy expanded in remarkable proportions. The question we should continually ask is “Can our effort change our destiny?” Do we have individuals, corporates or other organisations who are “mad enough” to want to take gigantic business risks and see such investments through for the benefit of the larger economy? Such persons must be encouraged and not castigated because their success might transform into glory for us all as a nation. Economic progress for a nation lies in the singular and collective efforts of some of us and not all of us at any point in time. Some are better than all of us at certain things and we must acknowledge and respect that. Remember, at the forth coming African Cup of Nations, (AFCON) only “eleven men” would have the audacity and opportunity to carry the hopes and aspirations of a whole nation on their shoulder during any particular football match, how well they perform would translate into our collective glory or shame, lets support our finest if we truly desire the fine things of life. The source/personality with that effort, to my mind, are irrelevant; what matters is where, how, and to what cause such effort is directed. The parable of the talent in Matthew 25:14-30 is very instructive here, particularly verse 29, “for unto everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: … “Be reminded that the Good Lord God gave talents to every man according to his ability”, verse 15.
The issues raised by Aliko Dangote can be surmised thus:
- Unknown people were sabotaging the Port Harcourt Refinery
- Unpatriotic individuals and groups were deliberately sabotaging pipeline infrastructure and Depots across the country.
- There are mafias in the oil and gas industry that perpetrate evil.
- Dangote Refinery has lost about $82 million to theft within its area of operation.
- Allegation of financial improprieties against the head of NMDPR
With an investment of $20 billion, is it not right for a man to do everything within his power to protect such an investment? In summary, Dangote says “Sabotage” is a major problem within the industry, and we also need a regulator that is above board to help manage, supervise, and regulate this all-important industry. Where did he go wrong? What has he said that is “new”. For anyone who feels defamed, the courts are there!
In the book – The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) by Professor Adam Smith, the author reminds us that Cicero and Plato, who emphasised the laws of natural equity, emphasised more the laws of policing as the most just system whose principles ought to run through and be the foundation for law and justice of every nation. For in the absence of law and justice backed be adequate and effective policing a nation cannot make progress. Anarchy and restlessness would take a stranglehold upon such a people and society, economic progress, poverty and chaos would then reign supreme …. I believe that Dangote is currently a lone voice in the wilderness urging us as a people and as a nation to “JUST REPENT”!
