How to become Africa's richest man (part 2)
According to the Bureau of Public Enterprises, the agency charged with the sale of government owned business, Blue Star - a consortium made up of Dangote, Otedola and River State government -won the “competitive bidding” for these two prized national assets. First off, this is clearly not competitive as it has the hallmark of collusion and price fixing. Foremost, the make up of the consortium is questionable. Here we have Dangote teaming up with his strongest competitor to date (Otedola’s Zenon) to make a bid, thus eliminating any stronger competitor from the horizon in the absence of Mike Adenuga who is still on the run. In addition to this, acting in concert with the Rivers State government effectively neutralizes local agitation and assures government support especially since Odili (then Rivers State Governor) was the certified Prince of the PDP machinery in the South-South and given that Dangote to date is also the largest single contributor to the evil empire. Note that there is nothing illegal about any of these moves in the absence of regulation; in the presence of it however the consortium should have been disallowed from bidding solely on the ground of collusion and unfair advantage.
Furthermore, the BPE use of the term “competitive bidding” is highly questionable. For one, Blue Star Consortium never participated in the bidding process leading to the sale of the Kaduna Refinery. The shady process that led to its emergence is fraught with loopholes that any innovative businessman will exploit for unfair advantage which Dangote and Otedola clearly did. For example the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which was offered the right of first refusal in the KRPC, had offered $102 million for the firm. This, according to Chigbue (BPE Boss), could not match the reserve price. This in turn paved the way for Dangote to offer $160 million to buy the plant. The process was, however, not thrown open to a competitive process; the unsexy claim by Chigbue of synergy between owners of PHRC and KRPC makes her sound more like someone on the payroll of Blue Star than that of the Nigerian people for whom she should be seeking the most price for their property now on fire sale!
5 comments:
What are you talking, my friend? Wetin? Otedola is not Dangote's strongest competitor but partner. In the background and shadows you'd have Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke and probably Charles Soludo, the Central Bank governor. Ndi Okereke=Oyiuke would be the Chief Strategist, selling the buy with Charlie Soludo as guarantor, ensuring cheap credit flow. It's a lot deeper than it shows.
Where is the sense in including Rivers State as part of the purchase team? Has it stopped to be a significant fraction that is the cumulative whole called Federal government of Nigeria? Pacify which people, do you think we do not know Odili is a rogue? For the mere fact that he stood to broker that deal makes it, in itself, highly suspicious. No doubt he was part of the funding, it would not happen that such an opportunity can walk him by. The man owns and built a refinery in Ghana for crying out loud, spanking new, bolts and all! Yes, Dangote is rich, same for Otedola but they're small fries when it comes to Odili. We know!
You are missing the crucial questions; who was fronting for the Chinese government in this deal? Or was it the Chinese government fronting for someone in return for juicy oil blocks? Consider. What really was the true nature of those deals? Who would get Soludo to conform? Buying Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries and putting them into one bag is the deal of a life time, would you honestly think Obasanjo wouldn't know this? Just think that the man is a top oil player in far-away places like Jamaica and Sao Tome and Principe, haba, and you really think he's going to crap away a chance at this deal of a life time? Are you kidding me? You think he was Petroleum minister because it sounded pleasing to the ears. Don't follow that thread my brother, beating your brains out about BPE, unfair advantage, collusion and what not. They are all designed to take you away from the main course! I urge you and my fellow Nigerians, to stop looking at the book's cover and read the book!
The targeted market for Nigeria's refined products was never intended to be the Nigerian market, it is the West African coast and all other places annexed to them that pay top dollar for oil and gas, period! Fuel shortage and scarcity are never going to go away, diversion of these products to subsidy free markets in the African region is the deal and not cheap fuel for the Nigerian masses! Now, take it from there and swing an arc.
The only man that could possibly be richer than Odili is Obasanjo but I doubt it, Obj just didn't have the kind of balls that Odili packs. Atiku does but he never really touched down. The little he got apportioned he wasn't ready to share with Obj and bear the burden of exposure alone. So, he took it all and look how far it got him!
Everything was wrong and illegal about the moves, regulation or not. How do you truly privatize to end up with an admixture of State government and entrepreneurs? That deal crashed because Odili pulled out of it. Rivers State government is really a.k.a Odili, read the fine prints my friend. Forget, Rivers State was always there it never left the equation, so what changed? How much did Rivers State government bring into the purchase deal, of course, zilch! Did Kaduna State participate in the purchase of Kaduna refinery? All these guys and girls are crooks per excellence not business men and stock brokers! To call them opportunists is to infer that they have some ethical business principles that they adhere to and explore maximally, they do not! Dangote has always been linked to controversial happenings. I remember during the rice importation era, how it was rumored he had sent wharf rats to slash his competitor's rice bags with razors. Just ask Stanley Macebuh. Let's not even discuss BPE; Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke is Irene Chigbu's mentor and idol. there to do her singular bidding for always. They are exactly like George Bush and Tony 'Poodle' Blair. Finally, for $160 million, why wouldn't you build a brand new refinery or two? Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Warri refineries are all plugged into the bowels of Nigeria's crude oil wells. And that is what everybody seems to forget, an uninterrupted flow of crude is pumped into them and in collusion with government, there's really no one to verify actual pumping. I hope, the picture, at least, has gotten clearer.
Wonderful. Now we are talking. Oga me, you do well. We know Dangote's business is to front for crooked politicians and top government officials. We know the secrets of his private jetties and airfields. His cronies in the Customs and hangers-on. His Liberty bank deals, he think we no dey see am? We know his story; from powder to rice to cement and flour and properties, we know am. The time never reach, its coming real soon.
This Dangote man sef. I dont need to be told that he must have come about his wealth in a very dubious way. How can he discover such fantastic wealth from the humble beings of a sweet seller who sold his ware from a tray on his head and on foot, to the collosus that he is today within the space of a few years and most importantly without the help of any known godfather. Something is surely amiss about the man.
See now and this is the man that is keeping his fingers crossed and hoping that Forbes would name him richest man in Africa! He wants to be richest black person in the world. There are people who are richer than Oprah and black but they are not recognized because the source of their wealth is dubious. So, if Dangote says he is much more richer than Oprah and Forbes does not recognize him as such it means the source of his riches are suspect, it is an indictment of him that puts a big question mark on his wealth.
"We know his story; from powder to rice to cement and flour and properties, we know am." Poster# 2
Which one is powder again? Dangote group of companies does not manufacture any kind of powder or did the poster mean pasta?
Post a Comment