Author: Energy and Business Media

Two Years of President Tinubu: A Business Perspective

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

As Nigeria marks two years under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, I believe it is important to reflect, not from the lens of politics, but from the perspective of business, of industry, and of the economy. I speak not only as the Chairman of BUA Group – one of Africa’s largest conglomerates, but also as someone who has lived through the complexity of Nigeria’s reforms. I have seen the cost of dysfunction, the burden of inefficiency, but more importantly, the promise of a level playing field and the dividends of decisive governance.

FUEL SUBSIDY REMOVAL

The removal of the fuel subsidy is one of the most important decisions taken by this administration. Before that, Nigeria was selling PMS at 200 or 250 Naira per litre, which was about 25 or 30 cents. I doubt there was any country in the world where fuel was being sold at that price. During my trip to Saudi Arabia for the lesser Hajj in February this year, I checked the pump price at one of the petrol stations as we drove from Jeddah to Mecca. When I converted the price to Naira, it was almost 1,500 Naira per litre. That was Saudi Arabia.

We could simply not afford the subsidy. It was not just Nigerians who were benefiting from it. We were subsidising the entire region. I remember visiting Niger Republic a few years ago when President Bazoum honoured us. During dinner, he joked and said, “Thank you for the subsidy.” He said 100 percent of all PMS consumed in Niger was coming from Nigeria because it would cost them three times more to import. There was no incentive for them to bring in their own fuel or refine crude at their own refinery. This was the situation across the region.

Today, I understand that our fuel consumption has dropped by almost 40 to 50 percent. It is not because Nigerians are consuming less, but because neighbouring countries have stopped tapping into our subsidised fuel. The PMS is still cheaper in Nigeria, even at 800 or 900 Naira per litre, but the logistics no longer support easy access. Countries like Niger and Benin Republic still take fuel from Nigeria, but others have stopped.

The removal of subsidies was needed not only to save the economy but to ensure that Nigerians alone benefit from what is imported. Even if there must be subsidy, it should be for Nigerians only. The money saved is now being channelled to infrastructure, to better support for states, and to other developmental priorities. All the states are receiving more money now, and that has made a real difference.

I am of firm opinion that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made the right decision, and he made it boldly. On the first day he took office, he did what everyone knew had to be done but no one dared to do. He acted immediately. Many criticised him, but he did the right thing, and it saved the country. Had we continued under that burden, only God knows where we would be today. I always say, Mr President is probably the only one who had the courage to take such hard and necessary decisions.

ON THE UNIFICATION OF THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE REGIME

The unification of the foreign exchange market is another critical reform. Before this, many of us in the business community spent most of our time chasing foreign exchange. I personally spent half of my time trying to get FX from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The CBN was the only source of official exchange, offering FX at around 500 Naira when the parallel market was 800 or 900. No business could survive outside the CBN structure.

Every two weeks, we would go to Abuja to seek allocations. It was exhausting and inefficient. You had to camp there for three or four days before Allocation Monday, waiting for the CBN to allocate dollars. Today, I have met the new CBN Governor, Mr Cardoso, only once in two years. The reason is simple: I do not need to go to Abuja now to get foreign exchange. The system is open. It is working.

This was also a bold move by President Tinubu. It was necessary, and he took that decision as well. We are very glad because today we can focus on our businesses. These reforms are saving the economy.

FAIRNESS, SANITY AND STABILITY IN BUSINESS

Under this administration, we have seen a return to fairness and stability in business. We no longer worry about arbitrary shutdowns or politically motivated disruptions. Let me give a real example. We started a new business in Port Harcourt four or five years ago under BUA Foods, operating at  the Rivers Ports under a concession with the Nigerian Ports Authority. It was going very well. One day, we woke up to a letter stating that the concession had been revoked, the terminal shut down, and the lease agreement terminated. There was no prior warning, no issue, no conflict.

Later, we discovered that the Managing Director of NPA at the time decided to close the business simply because our operations were competing with those of her friend. She wanted to impress her friend. That was the only reason. Today, that kind of thing cannot happen. Nobody would dare take such an action under President Tinubu. You can wake up now without fear that your business has been shut down by an agency or politician.

That stability is critical. That Port Harcourt plant alone has seen over 500 million dollars in investment and has employed over 4,000 people. The confidence this government has brought is real, and it is helping us plan better.

I must also personally acknowledge former President Muhammadu Buhari. When our Port Harcourt plant was unfairly shut down, it was his intervention that saved it. I had the privilege of explaining the situation to him. He agreed it was wrong and acted. He said he would not permit injustice under his watch. That decision saved the business. But the reality is, I had access. What if I did not? That is the difference today. Now, nobody needs access to the President to be treated fairly. Everyone knows that if you do something wrong under President Tinubu, you may lose your job or even face prosecution and go to jail. That is why I can now spend more time focusing on the business and relaxing.

The President Tinubu reforms are creating a level playing field. Like I said previously, every business had to lobby the CBN for FX. If you did not, your business would collapse. Now, you do not need to go to Abuja. You just focus on your operations.

INFRASTRUCTURE AS A KEY DRIVER OF DEVELOPMENT

In infrastructure, the difference is also clear. Look at the Lagos-Calabar highway. Look at the Sokoto-Badagry road. Look at the Kwara projects we are executing under the tax credit scheme. Look at Kano-Kongolam. Look at the Okpella to Kogi State corridor. These projects are progressing because of the savings from subsidy removal and FX unification. With more revenue, Nigeria is building.

These roads and others being built are critical because logistics have become a major challenge. Transporting goods from Lagos to the North is very expensive due to bad roads. Now, the President is addressing this. With better infrastructure, logistics will improve, and businesses will grow. These reforms have enabled long-term planning and serious investment.

BUA WILL CONTINUE TO BET ON NIGERIA

Since President Tinubu took office, BUA Group has invested over one billion dollars in the Nigerian economy. We are expanding our food business, doubling our flour and pasta facilities in Port Harcourt and building another in Lagos. Demand is increasing. People are earning more. Confidence is returning. We have also completed the first POP plaster manufacturing plant in Nigeria which is now operating and are soon starting construction of a 30MW solar energy project in Sokoto State.

In the oil and gas sector, we are completing our LNG project in Ajaokuta, Kogi State. These investments are possible because of stability that has been brought about by President Tinubu’s reforms. We can plan now. The exchange rate has been fairly stable for almost a year. FX is accessible. Money is coming in from different sources, and investors are responding. If you want 200 million dollars a week for trade, you can get it without lobbying anyone at the Central Bank. These are the results of good policies.

ON FOOD SECURITY

When I met President Tinubu recently, he raised concerns about food prices. He wanted to know what BUA Foods was doing. I explained that his six-month tariff waiver had worked. It disrupted hoarding in the rice market. In Nigeria, the rice harvest is short and runs for about three months. Middlemen were buying paddy rice, hoarding it, and raising prices post-harvest. This artificial scarcity drove prices to as high as 110,000 Naira per bag. The farmers did not benefit. Farmers just wanted to sell and move on yet some people were buying from them, hoarding it, and creating a food crises in the country.

The temporary waiver allowed rice to be brought in, and milled immediately. The hoarders were cut out. Prices began to drop. It was a short-term solution, but it worked. It showed foresight. I told the President it helped and that if the situation persists, further steps can be taken. But for now, it has made a difference.

PRESIDENT TINUBU’S NIGERIA FIRST POLICY AND BACKWARD INTEGRATION

President Tinubu’s Nigeria First policy has aligned well with our own belief in backward integration. Our cement business is almost entirely local. We mine our own limestone. We use Nigerian gas even though it is dollar-denominated. The only foreign element is the equipment, and even that benefits from government concessions for mining equipment which everyone else in the industry benefits. If we had to import cement today, prices would be over 15,000 Naira per bag. Nigeria does not have the port infrastructure to even handle the import volume. Producing locally has saved the economy and stabilised the sector.

We are doing more, and we will continue to do more. Nigeria has everything—population, arable land, resources, water, and now, strong leadership under President Tinubu. We believe in Nigeria because the fundamentals are now strong. My advice to all is to take a Bet on Nigeria. This is the place to be.

So for me, what has this administration done right? First, it removed the fuel subsidy which was the biggest economic scam in our history. Second, it unified the foreign exchange market and third, it restored stability, fairness, and confidence in the economy. These are the foundations of growth. Nigeria is full of potential. With the right leadership, which we now have, there is no limit to what we can achieve.

DAPPMAN elects new governing council members as Akpani-led executive bows out

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) on Wednesday elected new governing council members marking an end of the tenure of the Dame Winifred Akpani-led immediate past executive of the Association.

The newly elected executive include: Mrs. Moroti Adedoyin-Adeyinka – Chairman (Sahara Energy Group); Mr. Chris Odinaka Igwe – Vice Chairman 1 (Mainland Oil & Gas Co. Ltd.); Mr. Ibrahim Ali – Vice Chairman 2 (Shafa Energies); Otunba Barrister Bolaniran Adeyeye – Secretary (Optima Energy); Barrister. (Mrs) Patience Dappa – Assistant Secretary (Masters Energy Group); Barrister. (Mrs) Ngozi Ekeoma – Financial Secretary (Nepal Oil and Gas Service); Lady Ada Chukwudozie – Treasurer (Dozzy Oil and Gas Limited).

DAPPMAN members who turned out in large numbers to participate in the elections appreciated the outgoing executives for keeping up with the Association’s vision and mission of shaping the sustainable transformation of the downstream oil and gas industry, supporting members in navigating the operating landscape and promoting an enabling business environment for all stakeholders.

Speaking on the conduct of the election, the new chairman of the Association, Mrs. Moroti Adedoyin-Adeyinka said the process was transparent and devoid of rancour. Adedoyin-Adeyinka also appreciated the immediate past administration, where she served meritoriously as Treasurer.

“First of all, I think kudos goes to the immediate past executive council for setting the pace for leadership in this noble association. The buildup to the election was very organized. Everyone knew what to expect, and regardless of the outcome, we expect members to abide and continue to strive for the enthronement of a better DAPPMAN. We expect those coming on board to build on the solid foundation that the outgoing executive have laid over the years,” she said.

Giving her view on the Association’s journey thus far, immediate past first Vice Chairman of the Association, Hajiyya Amina Maina, said: “While I’ll say that I’m not in the best position to rate the performance of the immediate past executive being a member, first Vice Chairman to be precise, however, I can say we did a fantastic job rebranding and restructuring the Association into what it is today.”

Commenting on the conduct of the election, Hajiya Maina noted that
the election was organized in a way that allowed for fairness, credibility, and transparency. She noted that the global professional services network, KPMG, was appointed to oversee the process.

“I think this is a well thought-out electoral process. People were allowed to nominate candidates, and for the independence, credibility, and transparency of the process, KPMG was appointed to oversee the election and we all can attestate to how seamless the process was.”

The newly elected secretary of the Association, Otunba Bolaniran Adeyeye, in his assessment of the election, said it was not only transparent but seamless. He also urged the Nigerian government to take cues from the Association for subsequent elections in the country. ‘I’ll say the process is seamless and transparent. In fact, I think Nigeria can borrow a leaf from DAPPMAN on conduct of future elections. It is a game of numbers, and anyone that emerges in any of the positions is in for a serious job because it’s an act of service and not a money-making adventure,’’ he noted.

Also speaking, the Executive Director of Dozzy Petroleum and newly elected Treasurer of the Association, Lady Ada Chukwudozie, said the process was transparent and unprecedented in the Association’s history. “Everything about the conduct of this election is unique and unprecedented in the history of DAPPMAN. The voting process was fast, being an electronic method, making the outcome credible, free, and fair,” she said.

Speaking on the achievements of the immediate past executive, Lady Chukwudozie said: ‘They came at a time that DAPPMAN was neither here nor there. In my judgement, I can affirm that they have done so well and deserve our appreciation for taking the association from where it used to be to where it is now.”

In his view, Founder and Group Managing Director of Rainoil Limited, Gabriel Ogbecie, said the election was professionally conducted, and the outcome would reflect the decision of members. He also appreciated the immediate past executive for taking the association to enviable heights.
“Marvellous! Mrs. Akpani did a brilliant job as Chairperson, and I wish she could continue steering the affairs of the Association. The immediate past executive did a wonderful job, and I want to especially appreciate Winifred Akpani and her team for the great job they’ve done these past five years. You can see we are in this befitting secretariat, and its part of their achievements because we didn’t have one when they came on board. They did quite a lot, and I’ll rate them very high.”

Setting agenda for the new executive, he said: ‘’They should sustain the tempo and not necessarily reinvent the wheel, more advocacy because of the trying times we are in.’’

For Godrey Ogbechie, Director of Fynefield Petroleum, the Association couldn’t have conducted a peaceful, transparent and credible election without the robust experience of the former executive who she described as laying a worthy foundation for the Association to thrive.

“The outgone executive did a great job laying many foundations and improving on others, particularly the electioneering process that is ushering in new leaders of the association. The process was transparent, and camaraderie was robust. At the end of the day, the common goal is to have a more dynamic association and also ensure that individual member companies do well.”

The immediate past chairman, Dame Winifred Akpani, in her valedictory speech, appreciated members and the former executive for their courage and determination to build DAPPMAN and taking it to the enviable heights it is today.

“We were determined to have an association that can make a lot of difference, and gradually, we did. We preached integrity, and our members adhered to it strictly. Despite being a woman, I led the association without facing any form of gender discrimination throughout my tenure, and this was only possible because of the kind of members we have. They’ve over the years, shown understanding and stood by the administration that I was privileged to lead. I want to say thank you all and ask that you extend a bigger support system to the new executives.

The former chairman also commended all the contestants for their sportsmanship before and during the elections. She urged them to see it as an act of service while advising the winners to be magnanimous in victory.

‘’I want to especially appreciate the contestants, particularly those that might not have their dreams of leading the association fulfilled at this time after the outcome of the elections. We all cannot emerge leaders altogether, and you know you can always bounce back bigger and better,” she said.

The new chairman, Mrs. Moroti Adedoyin-Adeyinka, in her acceptance speech, appreciated members for their maturity throughout the electioneering process. She urged everyone to join hands with her in the collective purpose of forging ahead a better future for DAPPMAN. She also particularly appreciated her predecessor for setting the pace for excellence in leadership.

‘This election just showed how committed we are to the progress and greatness of this association. We all fought for the various offices because of our aim to make a difference and take DAPPMAN higher to the next level. Thank you all so much.

“I also want to especially appreciate the former chairman for her leadership these past years. I was part of her administration and can testify first hand to her proactiveness. Just call her, and she’s on her way to offer all the needed support. She really took leadership to topnotch, and we have no choice but to keep the flag flying.” she said.
Those who witnessed the whole process as Observers said the transparency of the electoral process and reactions to the outcome was exemplary and inspiring.

FG ruining our businesses with stevedoring, downstream sector players cry out

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

Some stakeholders in the Nigerian downstream oil and gas sector have expressed concerns about the inclusion of additional costs that were not originally included in their pricing template.

They have singled out Stevedoring as one of the costs that were added without prior agreement.

Said one of the top Executives of an oil marketing company: “For the downstream business, which is where we are at, yes, the upstream business is slightly different. They run their transactions dollar-based. So I guess they can pay money in dollars. We (downstream players) run our transactions in Naira. Everybody knows that Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) is not deregulated yet; that is the truth, the reality. “

“So given the restriction there, it even makes it difficult to accommodate any other cost that is not within that pricing structure. The pricing structure is clear. It talks about vessels. It talks about anything that has to do with your vessel’s activity. It is specific. If you log on to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) websites, you will see that there’s nowhere where stevedoring is mentioned,” added this stakeholder.

He noted further: “When they start to introduce those things into that cost structure, then we are unable to sell, or rather, it’s either you are selling at a loss because you are including costs that are not in regulated templates, or you can’t sell within the limitation of the regulated price.
I don’t know; sometimes I feel as if a lot of these things are done due to a lack of knowledge. So if you give Stevedoring to the upstream companies, their system is robust enough. It has a deregulated structure.
But we should always know that you can’t be saying you want us to reduce costs and, on the government side, keep increasing them. So yes, there’s an act guiding it.”

Given the prevailing uncertain situation, downstream sector stakeholders are calling on the Federal Government and regulatory agencies like Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to involve major stakeholders before making rules and signing such policies and initiatives into law.

“First, the government should engage the stakeholders; people shouldn’t sit where they sit and just make rules around things they know very little about. So it is not just about what the downstream sector wants. Let’s engage so that you better understand our business”

He added, “At this point, with where we are with petroleum product in this country, Stevedoring should not be applied to us. Stevedoring is in dollars or cents per litre. You don’t denominate your business in dollars because whatever we sell, we sell in naira and kobo. So, you can’t apply the same laws that you apply to upstream or midstream to downstream. That’s why I said that there’s a lack of understanding.
So the first thing to do is to engage the stakeholders in that sector. When you engage, then we can make a decision. For us, the decision is that they need to take stevedoring out of our costing template. We can’t apply it as we speak.
We need to talk about it. Do you understand our business? Let us describe what we do to you, and when we describe it, the resolution will be clear. As we have said, you can’t apply stevedoring to the downstream sector.”

“The authority in charge of stevedoring is the NPA, and they are part of the government. We have to engage them extensively, and like all government parastatals, they do not listen; they just stick to the fact that it has been gazetted and is law,” a concerned stakeholder noted.

Meanwhile, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, (MWUN) had in August said the level of engagement of indigenous Stevedoring firms on oil platforms across the country currently stands at 60 percent.

President General of MWUN, Comrade Adewale Adeyanju while speaking with newsmen said that most of the multi-national oil companies are beginning to engage stevedoring contractors.

Adeyanju, also said that although the NPA was yet to disclose the number of IOCs that are complying, there has been a steady increase in level of compliance.

“The level of compliance by the IOCs on the engagement of Stevedoring companies has reached 60 percent. The once powerful multi-national companies are now engaging Stevedoring companies.
And the Nigerian Ports Authority, has not been able to tell us the number of the IOCs that are complying, they should tell us how these IOCs are obeying the Stevedoring extant laws. The bulk of the matter lies with the NPA “.

Continuing, he adds, “For the Union, they have seen our reactions, if ExxonMobil, Texaco and those big multi nationals engage the services of Stevedoring contractor appointed by the NPA, the level of compliance will be getting better “.

Oil Industry watchers, however, posited that while OICs and other players in the Upstream and Midstream Sectors of the Oil Industry need to sign on to the Stevedoring Regulations, the same cannot be said of the downstream sector players who operate in peculiar circumstances where their businesses are denominated in local currency, Naira, in addition to the fact that such extra costs to be incurred could either lead to a hike in fuel prices or irrecoverable additional costs to the operators in the sector.

Now That Dangote Refinery is Live

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May I congratulate Alhaji Aliko Dangote for finally giving birth to a “bouncing” refinery after being in the labour room for a decade. It is heartwarming to learn that father and baby are doing well. Of all the adventures Dangote has embarked upon in his life — starting from his primary school days when, according to him, he was buying sweets with his lunch money and giving them to the maiguard to resell for him — the refinery project is surely the roughest and the toughest. For someone who took a multibillion dollar loan at N160/$ and has had to repay at the prevailing exchange rate per time, the refinery venture is enough to ruin his empire and turn him to a forgotten man. But he survived.

I am also thankful that I am alive to witness history. Since the early 2000s, I have been a fierce advocate of building of refineries in Nigeria, although my agitation was that the government should do it since the private sector was reluctant because of thorny issues around deregulation and subsidy. When Dangote announced in 2013 that he was going to build a refinery, I was over the moon. I celebrated it with an article, ‘The Refinery We’ve Been Praying for’ (THISDAY, September 22, 2013). As at then, he was thinking of 400,000 barrels per day and working with a budget of $9 billion, covering two other petrochemical projects in Edo and Ogun states which were initially in his plans.

I asked him why he would build a refinery despite the failure of the Nigerian government to deregulate the downstream sector. Most private sector investors had said they would not build refineries without deregulation. Dangote replied: “With or without deregulation, there is nothing stopping anyone from building a refinery. I am not a marketer. All I will do is buy crude oil at the market price, refine and sell to marketers at the market price. It is marketers that deal with subsidy. If government continues to subsidise, marketers can buy products from us and then collect the subsidy from government. If not, they can sell to motorists at the market price. It’s not complicated.”

Now that the refinery has taken off, the notion that it will bring down the pump prices of petrol and diesel, etc, needs to be toned down. This notion has been promoted by unionists and activists for decades: that local refining would eliminate subsidy. No, it won’t. Dangote Petroleum Refinery Ltd buys crude oil at the going rates in the international market. It will price its refined products accordingly. You can’t buy raw materials at higher prices and sell the finished products at lower prices. Marketers will buy the products from the refinery and sell to motorists. It is now left for the Nigerian government to decide whether or not to subsidise at the point of purchase by Nigerians. 

Dangote reminded me then that when marketers imported petrol from foreign refineries, they bought at market prices over there before claiming subsidy payments from government. He went a step further by saying Nigeria should start focusing on exporting petroleum products. “The way forward is for us to start exporting refined products rather than crude. We will get far much better value that way. In the next five to seven years, we should stop exporting crude altogether. Apart from South Africa, the refining capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa is grossly insufficient. Angola has a refinery that can only handle 30,000 barrels per day, whereas they consume 120,000 barrels,” he said.

While promising that his own refinery could be completed by 2016, he projected that other African countries would be coming “to buy products from our refinery… that is our strategic plan”. A lot of things changed along the line. Costs ballooned and deadlines were shifted various times. I must confess herein that at a stage, I was doubting if the refinery would ever be. This was worsened by unending negative media reports about the hiccups and setbacks. But on January 13, 2024, the refinery finally came alive. Mr Femi Otedola, his billionaire friend, calls it the “eighth wonder of the world”. For those of us who had followed the trajectory for so long, this was indeed momentous.

The stats, as made public by Dangote Refinery, are very impressive: sitting on about 2,635 hectares in the Ibeju-Lekki export-processing zone, the $19 billion facility is the world’s largest single-train 650,000 barrels per day refinery with a polypropylene plant that will produce materials for plastic packaging, plastic parts for machinery as well as fibres and textiles. For comparison, the combined installed capacity of Nigeria’s four sick refineries is 445,000 bpd and it has been so since 1989, when President Ibrahim Babangida inaugurated Port Harcourt II. Both Port Harcourt refineries were built to be able to refine 210,000 bpd; Warri, 125,000 bpd; and Kaduna 110,000 bpd also. All on paper.

Several stats have been published by Dangote Refinery, but the one that easily pops at me is that when producing at full capacity, it can meet all our petrol, diesel and aviation fuel needs. In other words, we would not have to import refined products again. I find this satisfying: my dream has always been that we would stop importing products. We pride ourselves as an oil-producing giant but we are not even enjoying most of the benefits in the industry chain because of poor thinking. I used to campaign vigorously that government should take the bull by the horn by investing in a mega refinery to meet our local needs. It could then lease out management and sell it off in the future.

I received a long lecture from the CEO of a downstream company at the time who told me emphatically that building refinery was a waste, that it was not a profitable business. He said no new refineries were being built globally. He also said, ominously, that there would be little or no difference between local refining and importation of petroleum products, concluding that the business case for a refinery was bad. “The difference between refining in Nigeria and importing from Europe is shipping cost,” he said and I paraphrase. “If you may know, shipping is the cheapest form of transportation in international trade. There is no advantage with having a refinery in Nigeria.”

I did not agree with him, even though he sounded convincing. I was thinking of the local jobs and the value chain, but I was not ready to argue my case. He was enjoying so much patronage in the fuel importation business under the President Obasanjo administration that I did not expect him to agree with my proposal. And he had a strong voice in the policy direction of the government in the oil sector. Government officials consistently said privatisation was the way to go and that Obasanjo was not going to build a new refinery. Since then, we have been spending billions of dollars on treating our sick refineries without success. (Well, the jury is out on the latest Port Harcourt rehabilitation).

Now that Dangote Refinery has seen the light of the day, I am thinking of what might have been. If we were a thoughtful nation, we should be having regrets. Maybe someone would do the math one day and unearth the amount of forex we have been burning on fuel imports since 1999. There are many reasons for the sorry state of the naira today and fuel importation cannot be considered as a trivial factor. Fine, we are earning billions of dollars from oil export, but so also are we concurrently burning our forex income on fuel imports. The resources that should go into building our reserves are depleted on importing fuels. Let us now hope that forex demand for fuel importation will end.

The second regret is the way we have been trading away value through crude swap deals in the last 10 or more years. We created an arrangement under which we would basically barter crude oil for fuel imports. Using traders, we would exchange a barrel of crude valued at $70 for litres of petrol worth $70. I have always been wondering: what happens to the other products and byproducts in the same barrel? For all you care, those ones could be worth another $70 (just guessing). What a waste! But that is what happens when you have more oil than sense — or, to put it less dramatically, when the buccaneers, who know where all the value is, collude with those in authority to skin us.

Now that Dangote Refinery is onstream, we should expect an end to this. There will be byproducts both for export and local utilisation. Fertilisers aside, there is the carbon black which is raw material for paints, inks, rubber products, car tires and food colorants. The refinery plans to produce bitumen, which Nigeria currently imports. These are some of the benefits we threw away for decades, swapping crude oil for petrol and arguing that shipping cost is the only difference between local refining and fuel importation. Take a moment to imagine the lost forex revenue and the jobs that we bartered away while complaining that unemployment, poverty and crime were on the rise.

All said and done, we cannot undo the past. We took a lot of missteps in the past two decades. Some were genuine mistakes. Hindsight is usually a perfect 20/20 and we can all become wise after the event. But some missteps were self-serving. Remember that the fuel import and subsidy regimes created a generation of rent-made billionaires who were nothing but devourers and cankerworms. The past can remain in the past while we make the best of a possible new order. I know many people are suspicious of Dangote because of his business practices, but that is down to regulatory failure. I want to sincerely hope that the success of this project will attract more investors to the sector.

If the Port Harcourt Refinery really works as promised by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), that means we could start exporting refined products sooner than later, having achieved self-sufficiency in Nigeria. That would be a dream come true for me. I have always hoped that Nigeria would be among the world’s biggest exporters of refined products. The forex income is the first thing that jumps at you today given the parlous state of the national currency, but there are several other benefits. What about the tens of thousands of jobs? What about the potentially huge new economy around the petrochemical industry? Dangote took a big risk. Let us start enjoying the benefits.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

FCT KIDNAPPERS

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nigeria’s seat of power, has come under unwanted attention recently with the upsurge in kidnappings. It has never been crime-free — we should remember how Boko Haram used to bomb FCT with ease — but hopes that it has become a safe haven in recent years are fast disappearing. The brutal nature of the kidnappings — a young student was killed while ransom money was still being mobilised — might suggest a touch of terrorism. Kidnappers hardly kill their victims who are co-operating with them, but terrorists are usually desperate and murderous as they seek to raise funds for their operations. This is for the security agencies to consider. Terrifying.

IBADAN ARMAGEDDON

Wednesday night brought trauma to Ibadan, Oyo state, with the explosion that rattled the city, grinding houses to dust and sending five people to early graves. Those who survived need attention. Some will develop hearing problems, mental health issues and PTSD. Treating physical injuries and discharging patients from the hospital should be complemented with therapy. I can see we are trying to blame foreigners for the disaster, but maybe we need to look inwards too. What sort of system allows a private residence to stockpile explosives? This is a national security issue. The trucks must have passed various security checkpoints after paying the dirty tolls on its way to that house. Porous.

TWO PLANETS

The company at the centre of the social register verification contract saga is New Planet Projects Ltd, founded in 2009 by Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, now minister of interior, and not Planet Projects Ltd, as I mistakenly wrote last week. Planet Projects Ltd, the transport infrastructure company, was founded by Mr Biodun Otunola and is best known for building the Oshodi bus terminal. It was registered in 2007. Although I am not making any excuses, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) surely created a room for the mistaken identity. By just adding “new” to an existing name, you can get the CAC to register your company with the help of insiders, even when it could amount to “passing off”. Chaos.

NO COMMENTS

On Thursday, Mr Ola Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), said something we knew all along but had been silent upon for years: that the anti-graft body stinks. The elephant in the room. “The craze and quest for gratification, bribes and other compromises by some of our investigators are becoming too embarrassing and this must not continue,” he lamented. We should pray for him as he prepares to take on the monsters within. Olukoyede may also want to find out why Nigerians pay N60,000 under the table to get the SCUML certificate. Restoring public faith and confidence in the commission will definitely take a while, but it is worth a try. Uphill.

Dangote Refinery: We’ve registered IPMAN, DAPPMAN for product distribution

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

Dangote Petroleum Refinery says it has commenced registration of distributors for the lifting and distribution of refined petroleum products across the country.

The largest single-train refinery in the world began production on January 12, 2024, after receiving six million barrels of crude oil cargo.

In a statement on Saturday, the company said members of the three prominent distribution associations that constitute 75 percent of the total market in Nigeria have been registered.

The associations include, the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN), and the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, (MOMAN).

The firm said it is also considering other marketers that have signified interest in the lifting and distribution of its petroleum products.

NO APPOINTED DISTRIBUTORS 

According to the statement, the refinery can meet 100 percent of Nigeria’s requirement for all refined products (gasoline, 45 million litres per day; diesel, 14 million litres per day; kerosene, 10 million litres per day, and aviation jet fuel, 2 million litres per day) and have surplus for export.

Meanwhile, the management also denied reports claiming that the refinery appointed distributors of its products.

While registration of distributors has commenced, the organisation said the process of appointment is ongoing.

“All news regarding the Dangote Refinery should not be taken as a matter of fact if not officially communicated by the company”, the statement reads.

‘RELATIONSHIP WILL BE WIN-WIN’

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Commenting on the development, Olufemi Adewole, executive secretary, DAPPMAN, said the association commenced discussions with the company regarding the lifting and distribution of refined petroleum products last year.

He said the meeting was held between Winifred Akpani, DAPPMAN chairman, Mahmud Tukur, second vice-chairman, and Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Group.

According to Adewole, the meeting was to explore collaboration between the refinery and DAPPMAN members whose nationwide presence will be critical in distributing products from the plant to consumers.

He said the refining of petroleum products from Dangote Refinery would “accelerate Nigeria’s economic development and provide DAPPMAN members with seamless access to refined petroleum products”.

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On his part, Hammed Fasola, national vice-president of IPMAN, said the association had declared its intention to lift and distribute petroleum products from Dangote Refinery.

“We have already established a business relationship with Dangote Refinery. We believe that the relationship is going to be a win-win one,” he said.

“Our association owns 80 percent of the retail outlets in the country and we have all it takes to ensure smooth distribution of petroleum products from Dangote Refinery across the country.”

Also, Clement Isong, executive secretary and chief executive officer of MOMAN, confirmed members’ registration to become marketers of Dangote’s petroleum products.

“I confirm that my members have registered with them. We were waiting for the production to start and now it has started, and they will start discussing the commercial terms,” Isong said.

“So yes, major marketers and other players will buy for the market. The important thing was the registration.

“Now the commercial terms will be agreed with each marketer and then they will buy from them. There are several ways you can buy from them. They have loading ranks, over 90, so you can take your truck to go and pick. You can also use vessels to pick. Those are the two ways you pick products.”

The 650,000 bpd capacity refinery was inaugurated by former President Muhammadu Buhari in May 2023.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery registers MOMAN, IPMAN and DAPPMAN members for Products distribution 

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

Management of Dangote Petroleum Refinery has commenced registration of distributors for the lifting and distribution of refined petroleum products across the country.

So far, members of three prominent associations, that constitute 75 per cent of the total market in Nigeria have been registered. The associations are the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN), and Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, (MOMAN).

The company is also considering other marketers that have signified interest in the lifting and distribution of its petroleum products in the country.

Executive Secretary, Depot, and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), Olufemi Adewole said that the association commenced discussions with Dangote Petroleum Refinery regarding the lifting and distribution of refined petroleum products last year during a meeting between DAPPMAN Chairman Dame Winifred Akpani, the 2nd Vice Chairman, Alhaji Mahmud Tukur and the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote.

According to him, the meeting was to explore collaboration between the refinery and DAPPMAN members whose nationwide presence will be critical in distributing products from the refinery to the consumers.

He said the refining of petroleum products from Dangote Refinery would accelerate Nigeria’s economic development and provide DAPPMAN members with seamless access to refined petroleum products.

Speaking in the same vein, National Vice President of IPMAN, Alhaji Hammed Adekunle Fasola, said the association had declared its intention to lift and distribute petroleum products from Dangote Refinery.

He said: “We have already established a business relationship with Dangote Refinery. We believe that the relationship is going to be a win-win one. Our association owns 80 per cent of the retail outlets in the country and we have all it takes to ensure smooth distribution of petroleum products from Dangote Refinery across the country.”

Also, the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, MOMAN, Clement Isong said MOMAN members have registered with Dangote Petroleum Refinery to become marketers of its products.

“I confirm that my members have registered with them. We were waiting for the production to start and now it has started, and they will start discussing the commercial terms. So yes, major marketers and other players will buy for the market. The important thing was the registration.

“So now the commercial terms will be agreed with each marketer and then they will buy from them. There are several ways you can buy from them. They have loading ranks, over 90, so you can take your truck to go and pick. You can also use vessels to pick. Those are the two ways you pick products.”

Designed for 100% Nigerian Crude with the flexibility to process other crudes, the Refinery can load 2,900 trucks a day at its truck-loading gantries. The products from the Refinery will conform to Euro V specifications. The refinery design complies with the World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms, and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission/effluent norms, employing state-of-the-art technology.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100% of Nigeria’s requirement for all refined products (Gasoline, 45 million litres per day; Diesel, 14 million litres per day; Kerosene, 10 million litres per day and Aviation Jet, 2 million litres per day) and have surplus for export.

Reacting to the spate of reports claiming to be appointed distributors of Dangote Petroleum products, the Management of Dangote Industries Limited noted that the registration of distributors has commenced. It, however, added that the process of appointment is ongoing. “All news regarding the Dangote Refinery should not be taken as a matter of fact if not officially communicated by the company”, the management stated.

‘NNPCL’s sole fuel importation status  bad for downstream businesses’

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

Nigerians and indeed business communities (particularly the downstream oil industry players) were caught off guard when President Bola Tinubu during his inauguration on May 29, 2023 declared that “fuel subsidy is gone!”. The President said there was no provision for subsidy in the national budget from June 2023 and, therefore, it stands removed.

From May 29 when the announcement was made, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) directed its outlets nationwide to sell Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) between N480 and N570 per litre, an almost 200 per cent increase from the initial price below N200, leading to a significant increase in transportation fares and prices of goods and services.

Again in July, petrol pump prices rose to about N617/N620 per litre at various outlets of the NNPCL in Abuja and many parts of the country. At the time, the NNPCL attributed the rise in prices to ‘market forces’. The NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, explained that with the deregulation of the oil sector, market realities will force the price of petrol up sometimes and at other times force it down.

Despite the immediate pains and uncertainties brought about by the president’s abrupt subsidy removal announcement, Nigerians in their patriotic spirits kept hope with the new government especially with repeated assurances from them that funds for the subsidy will be diverted to other pressing demands like public infrastructure, education, health care and jobs. The downstream oil industry players saddled with the onerous responsibilities of refining, marketing, distributing and selling the products to everyday users also keyed into the government’s directives since removal of the subsidy was also expected to allow for more private-sector operators in the petrol sector including in the importation of the product.

Recall that NNPCL has since 2016 been the sole importer of PMS in Nigeria. But on 15 June, the company announced it was no longer the sole supplier of petroleum products in the country.

The development came months after the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) said it was fast-tracking the process of issuing oil marketers licenses to import petroleum products in its bid to break the monopoly of the NNPCL in compliance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

Owing to this development, several indigenous oil companies applied for oil importation licenses and over 94 of them were licensed.

*Idle licenses as NNPCL continues market domination* 

Findings revealed that seven months after acquiring the licenses, only few of the oil marketers have been able to do business with it. According to them, challenges such as forex scarcity, fluctuation in prices of crude oil, poor distribution networks and others which were duly addressed in PIA still persist. However, they submitted that most pressing of these challenges is forex.

“People keep asking why most licensed oil marketers are no longer in business as if they don’t know the answer. How do I run a business that is obvious will be on loss? Where do I get forex to import this product? The NNPCL being a government funded company is the only one still doing business because it can access forex in whatever amount it so desire and that is the aim of collapsing the multi-forex windows to just Investors and Exporters (I&E) window as far as I am concerned. It’s majorly to run the Independent and Major oil marketers out of business,” an enraged marketer said.  

Over the past four months, the naira has depreciated by over 50 per cent at both the authorised and unauthorised market segments, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced in June that it had collapsed all forex windows into the Investors and Exporters (I&E) window. The move, according to the apex bank, was part of the federal government’s efforts to improve liquidity and stability in the market and attract foreign investors into the Nigerian economy.

Consequently, the policy has put additional pressure on the local currency and manufacturers, with ripple effects on domestic prices. Oil marketers that had allocations to import and supply petroleum products are unable to do so due to forex scarcity. Some fuel marketers said they are hardly able to access dollars and open letters of credit for their imports.

Speaking at the National Executive Council meeting of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA) in October, National President of the Association, Benneth Korie, said many petroleum products depots are currently deserted due to a lack of products caused by foreign exchange rate volatility.

“Depot owners are so terribly affected by the increasing cost of crude oil and exchange rate, to the extent that many depots are practically deserted as their owners are unable to secure bank loans to fund their business due to high-interest rates.

“Banks are not willing to guarantee funds release to stakeholders as a result of the difficulty, instability and galloping rates of foreign exchange and high cost of the dollar. Many depots are presently dried up or out of stock, and this is no gainsaying as it is evidently verifiable.

“Worst hit are filling stations whose owners find it extremely difficult to secure funds to procure products for their retail outlets. Both the independent and major marketers are so terribly affected,” Korie said at the time.

Meanwhile, NNPCL recently confirmed it has returned to being the sole importer of petrol in the country.

The NNPCL boss who disclosed this during the Energy Labour Summit organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja said licensed private oil companies are unable to obtain foreign exchange for importation.

“We are the only company importing premium motor spirit (PMS) into the country.

“None of them (oil companies) can do it today. For them, access to foreign exchange is difficult. We create foreign exchange (FX), therefore we have access to FX, while their access to FX is limited,” Kyari .

Again, during his appearance before the Senate Committee on Appropriation,  the  NNPC Ltd boss reaffirmed that his organisation remains the sole importer of refined products.  He however assured the Senate Committee that the forex issues with regards to wide disparities in margins would soon be  resolved. In his words, ” I am confident that by the end of the first quarter of next year, those margins will narrow down and you will see others coming into the importation market “.
His assurance notwithstanding,   industry experts are of the opinion that if not properly managed the forex crisis and other challenges facing the downstream industry players will cripple the economy, abate the whole purpose of the subsidy withdrawal and plunge the country into a deep socio-economic crisis. Said a petroleum industry authority,  ” For the avoidance of  doubt, this will result in a combination of adverse conditions that include lack of access to financing/credit, slump in investments,  household demand and consumption,  a falling GDP, high deficits, loss of income and unemployment among others.”
As things stand, the President has a major role to play ” since he has decided to go the way of his predecessors by appropriating the Petroleum Ministry to himself as Minister . He should act fast before it is too late,” another industry expert and analyst said.

Why FG shouldn’t allow NNPCL be sole importer of fuel in Nigeria

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

After initial hesitations to appear before the Senate Committee on Appropriation which drew the rage of members, Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of NNPCL, last Wednesday finally showed up before the August body, but got even more controversial as he made claims that have since continued to unsettle the downstream sector of the Oil Industry.

While explaining the contentious issue of fuel importation, Kyari claimed that other oil companies boycotted fuel importation because of their inability to manage the fluctuations in the foreign exchange market and the responsibility that the Petroleum Industry Act imposes on sector players.

Downplaying the vexacious issue of the continuous decline in the value of the Naira and emerging wide gap between the official and parallel market rates, the GCEO of NNPCL said: ” There is always a parallel market in every country. There is also an import and export window in every country, even in the developed world. But there is always a narrow gap between the two and it takes time for you to have stability in this gap so that you have a low margin between the two for a sustained period, then business will thrive.”

Then he predicted: “I am very confident that by the end of the first quarter of next year, those margins will narrow and stability will come and you will see others coming into the importation market. “

Downstream Sector watchers however are taken aback by the pronouncements of the NNPCL boss before the Appropriation Committee, with many of them submitting that Kyari, either deliberately or inadvertently, not only ignored the main plank on which the fuel subsidy removal and the deregulation policy is laid, but also unfairly treated, if not ridiculed, the wholesale fuel suppliers who had been forced to suspend fuel importation owing to circumstances beyond their control.

“The idea behind subsidy withdrawal is to put an end to the monopoly of NNPCL in respect of fuel importation. There ought to be a level playing field on which all players are supposed to operate on. How do you then blame wholesale fuel importers who enthusiastically secured licences to bring in products only to discover that the authorities cannot make the forex needed available to them at official rate . “And going to the parallel market is equivalent to a suicide mission, ” an Investment analyst noted.

He said further: “To admit that oil importers have left the business of fuel importation to NNPCL as Kyari admitted before the Committee is to admit the failure of the fuel subsidy withdrawal and deregulation policy and that is invariably saying that there is no end in sight for the sufferingmasses of Nigeria because it is only a level playing field for all fuel importers that will bring about a healthy competition which in turn will gradually bring down the cost of petroleum products.”

The contention is that rather than gloat over wholesale suppliers’ inability to import and portray them in negative light, it should call for sober reflection on the twin policy of fuel subsidy withdrawal and the unification of foreign exchange.

Experts say the development should challenge the officialdom which Kyari represents that today not a single wholesale supplier is involved in importation business, even though as many as 94 of them were issued permits to import products when the policy took off seven months ago.

Over the years, access to forex has been the main albatross to smooth fuel import into the country by the oil marketers, consequently putting in dismal straits every attempt to break the stranglehold of NNPC on the market and ensuring that every attempt at deregulating the sector came to grief.

At the current selling price of between N595 and N610 per litre in Lagos and between N610 to N620 elsewhere, the contention is that NNPC Limited is not coming clean to Nigerians on the realities of the fuel market with regard to pricing and product supply. Yet, the value of the naira has been steadily sliding downwards, reaching an abysmal low on the parallel market with one dollar exchanging for N1200, a wide shot from the official exchange rate of N850 to a dollar.

Recall that between 2010 and 2016, the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMAN) and Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN relied on federal government’s promise and resorted to massive fuel importation only to get their fingers burnt as the Federal Government failed to honour its own side of the bargain. At a point, their unpaid subsidy claims and matured Letters of Credit (LCs) arising from the old subsidy regime rose to $2 billion. Of this amount, only 20 marketers were paid
N69 billion after the National Assembly’s intervention three years later. Some of them are still owing to date.

Market watchers contend that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government, having demonstrated enough courage by ending the fuel subsidy regime should walk the talk by ensuring that oil marketers are not put in another grim business adventure again as this will spell doom for the new policy and indeed the economy.

Experts reasoned that allowing NNPC to continue as sole importer of fuel into the country has not only returned the country to subsidy regime, but made trivial the audacious conviction and move by the President to end the subsidy regime while also impacting negatively on the economy.

Experts however, warned that returning fuel subsidy at this time will lead to policy somersaults which could have very grave implications for the economy. It is for this reason that they urge the government to spare no efforts in ensuring that the right incentives are put in place to bring the oil marketers fully back into business and ensure keen competition among all players including NNPC Limited.

That Inflammable Battle Between Fuel Depot Owners and Cardoso Family

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

There is a strong allegation of threat to the eight petroleum depots and other oil and gas facilities at Kirikiri Town, Apapa, in Apapa Local Government Area of Lagos state. The dreadful plan of the adversaries, according to one of the senior workers, is to disrupt the movement of vessels supplying fuel to these depots. This, he stated matter-of-factly, would inevitably cause a major fuel crisis in the country.


The disposition of some stakeholders in the oil and gas industry is that the Federal and Lagos State governments must, as a matter of urgency and necessity, proactively intervene to prevent this looming crisis as the success of such a vicious sabotage would almost instantly plunge the country into a major fuel and security crisis.

To be sure, just two of the eight depots, Swift Oil Limited and BOVAS Group operate over 200 fuel outlets in the country with about 35million litres of fuel in the belly of their petroleum storage depots. This means that the gaseous hydrocarbons in the tanks of these two companies alone could serve the entire country for, at least, two or three days. It becomes easy then to visualise the ruinous impact that shutting down these two behemoths would have, how much more eight of them. This explains why both Lagos State and the Federal Government must not treat this threat with the usual mute indifference because it portends frightful consequences for the economy and security of the nation.

But it wasn’t as if these threats came as a total surprise. The tragic drama that played out on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, at the premises of these organisations, was a dismal omen of what was to come. On that day, Bailiffs and some officials of the High Court of Lagos State besieged Kirikiri Town and sealed off the eight depots belonging to these members of the Kirikiri Town Depot Owners’ Association as well as residential buildings in the community. The depot owners received this news of what looked like a judicial coup with an incredulous gasp. First, they were not in any legal tussle with anyone, neither were they a party to any suit over their titles. They therefore came to the grim conclusion that this must be one of those extortion rackets that have become the ordeal of many property owners in Lagos due to the unconscionable acts of some family outlaws and land grabbers backed by some mercenary Lawyers. But this one would even be much more complicated. Perhaps an accentuated version by a more resolute group.


The Depot Owners soon found out that a group of nine persons that claimed to be the great grandchildren and members of the family of the original owner of the land they bought had gone to the court and shockingly obtained a Consent Judgement given by Honourable Justice Jumoke Pedro on Monday, June 23, 2014 in Suit No. M/7/2014. The very Honourable Judge gave this far reaching judgement without giving those so gravely affected the opportunity of appearance to canvas their position. A suit that the outcome could mortally alter the economic wellbeing of this country went through a full adjudication almost covertly without making those directly affected parties to the case. It is important to stress this acute omission because the judiciary cannot exist without the trust and confidence of the people. It is in fact the belief by the people that their Judges are fair and impartial that sustains and drives the judiciary.


Now, here is what happened. Those nine people that claimed to be members of Cardoso family, the parties to the suit, (allegedly) split themselves into claimants and defendants over the Estate of late Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso, the authentic owner of the Estate. This is a very familiar extortionist strategy that is prevalent in Lagos. It is commonplace. And true to the usual outcome, they were given a sweeping Consent Judgement that set aside all previous dealings in properties forming part of Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso Estate while the Administrator-General and Public Trustee of Lagos state was authorised and mandated to take possession of all properties in the estate.


The Lawyers to the depot owners felt strongly that the court was misled to give this horror inflicting judgement. And so they approached the court with an Originating Summons in suit No. LD/1679/LM/2017 to redress this judgement. But the judge did not hear the case. Instead he referred them to the Lagos Multi-Door House for mediation. The judgement creditors, the group of nine, allegedly demanded some payments from each of the eight organisations. The serious minded business moguls behind the depots could not take this barefaced brigandage. And so their Lawyers returned to the courtroom. But their suit was dismissed in a judgement delivered on Monday, July 10, 2023. And pronto, on that same day, the Applicants obtained a warrant of possession for the execution of the judgement. This is despite the fact that the judgement contained no order for possession and was essentially declaratory and not amenable to execution.


Now, to appreciate the curious thing about this matter in issue, you need to understand the fact that none of these depot owners bought their land from Cardoso, the original owner of the estate who died on February 11,1940. For instance, it was only in 1977, about 37 years after Cardoso’s passing, that one Prince Jeremiah Cousin Mosheshe bought a parcel of land from the six biological children of the late Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso. The Prince, Mosheshe, did not forget to register this land with the Lagos State Land Registry and indeed perfected his title by obtaining Governor’s Consent.


In the next 20 years, more people would acquire varying parcels of land from the late Cardoso children and grandchildren, in the same manner that the children and grandchildren of this Prince Mosheshe also sold parcels of their land acquired from the Cardoso family. Among those that bought their lands from the Mosheshes were some of these fuel depot owners that operate under the aegis of Kirikiri Town Depot Owners’ Association. Having done due diligence and convinced they had a perfect title that paraded the signature item called Governor’s Consent, they commenced their capital intensive petroleum business on these lands. For over 20 years they ran their businesses without any hindrance. But all that changed on that Tuesday, August 8, 2023, when some Bailiffs and court officials sealed off their properties and many residential buildings in Kirikiri Town.


In their counter affidavit, these purported members of Cardoso family, claimed that Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso died intestate and dispute subsequently arose among his children over the distribution of his property. They further claimed that some of the children sold some parcels of land without obtaining Letters of Administration to administer the Estate. Then, after over 75 years of Cardoso’s death, one faction of his family members suddenly instituted a suit against another faction and the final outcome was the sealing of eight depots through a process that may be viewed by the victims as deliberately opaque.


And now, in a publication on Monday, November 20, 2023, the Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso family, led by the Family Head, Chief Tunlese Cardoso, came out to put up a disclaimer addressed to the Inspector General of Police and the general public describing the nine judicial adventurists as the unscrupulous members of the family “who have been working with some notorious land grabbers in Lagos to deny people who genuinely bought and leased landed property from our family in Kirikiri Town for a long time, the right to own and enjoy their properties…”.


From this publication alone, it is clear that the owners of the sealed depots and other oil and gas facilities as well as residential buildings are mere victims of a conclave of predatory land owners and the ritual of extortion still pervasive in the acquisition or disposition of family estates in Lagos.


The Executive Governor of the State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu understands these convoluted transactions in his State. For this reason, he allegedly brokered a temporary truce that allows the depot owners to continue to carry out their businesses pending the determination of their appeal. But now, the group of nine and their agents are reportedly threatening to disrupt their business in breach of the deal reached with the Executive Governor. And this is why it is critical for the Executive Governor of Lagos State and, indeed, the Federal Government to make a crucial intervention that will bring about a lasting resolution to this dispute. And the time is now. Anything to the contrary is to set in slow motion a process that will culminate in an economic catastrophe in Nigeria.

That Inflammable Battle Between Fuel Depot Owners and the Cardoso Family

Posted on by Energy and Business Media

There is a strong allegation of threat to the eight petroleum depots and other oil and gas facilities at Kirikiri Town, Apapa, in Apapa Local Government Area of Lagos state. The dreadful plan of the adversaries, according to one of the senior workers, is to disrupt the movement of vessels supplying fuel to these depots. This, he stated matter-of-factly, would inevitably cause a major fuel crisis in the country.

The disposition of some stakeholders in the oil and gas industry is that the Federal and Lagos State governments must, as a matter of urgency and necessity, proactively intervene to prevent this looming crisis as the success of such a vicious sabotage would almost instantly plunge the country into a major fuel and security crisis.

To be sure, just two of the eight depots, Swift Oil Limited and BOVAS Group operate over 200 fuel outlets in the country with about 35million litres of fuel in the belly of their petroleum storage depots. This means that the gaseous hydrocarbons in the tanks of these two companies alone could serve the entire country for, at least, two or three days. It becomes easy then to visualise the ruinous impact that shutting down these two behemoths would have, how much more eight of them. This explains why both Lagos State and the Federal Government must not treat this threat with the usual mute indifference because it portends frightful consequences for the economy and security of the nation.

But it wasn’t as if these threats came as a total surprise. The tragic drama that played out on Tuesday, August 8, 2023, at the premises of these organisations, was a dismal omen of what was to come. On that day, Bailiffs and some officials of the High Court of Lagos State besieged Kirikiri Town and sealed off the eight depots belonging to these members of the Kirikiri Town Depot Owners’ Association as well as residential buildings in the community. The depot owners received this news of what looked like a judicial coup with an incredulous gasp. First, they were not in any legal tussle with anyone, neither were they a party to any suit over their titles. They therefore came to the grim conclusion that this must be one of those extortion rackets that have become the ordeal of many property owners in Lagos due to the unconscionable acts of some family outlaws and land grabbers backed by some mercenary Lawyers. But this one would even be much more complicated.  Perhaps an accentuated version by a more resolute group.

The Depot Owners  soon found out that a group of nine persons that claimed to be the great grandchildren and members of the family  of the original owner of the land they bought had gone to the court and shockingly obtained a Consent Judgement given by Honourable Justice Jumoke Pedro on Monday,  June 23, 2014 in Suit No. M/7/2014. The very Honourable Judge gave this far reaching judgement without giving those so gravely affected the opportunity of appearance to canvas their position. A suit that the outcome could mortally alter the economic  wellbeing of this country went through a full adjudication almost covertly without making those directly affected parties to the case. It is important to stress this acute omission because the judiciary cannot exist without the trust and confidence of the people. It is in fact the belief by the people that their Judges are fair and impartial that sustains and drives the judiciary.

Now, here is what happened.  Those nine people that claimed to be members of Cardoso family, the parties to the suit, split themselves into claimants and defendants over the Estate of late Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso,  the authentic owner of the Estate. This is a very familiar extortionist strategy that is prevalent in Lagos. It is commonplace. And true to the usual outcome, they were given a sweeping Consent Judgement that set aside all previous dealings in properties forming part of Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso Estate while the Administrator-General and Public Trustee of Lagos state was authorised and mandated to take possession of all properties in the estate.

The Lawyers to the depot owners felt strongly that the court was misled to give this horror inflicting judgement. And so they approached the court with an Originating Summons in suit No. LD/1679/LM/2017 to redress this judgement. But Justice O. O. Ogunjobi would not hear the case. Instead he referred them to the Lagos Multi-Door House for mediation. Expectedly, the judgement creditors, the group of nine allegedly demanded N500million from each of the eight organisations. The serious minded business moguls behind the depots could not take this barefaced brigandage. And so their Lawyers returned to the courtroom. But their

suit was dismissed by Hon. Justice O. O Ogunjobi in a judgement delivered on Monday, July 10, 2023. And pronto, on that same day, the Applicants obtained a warrant of possession for the execution of the judgement. This is despite the fact that the judgement contained no order for possession and was essentially declaratory and not amenable to execution.

Now, to appreciate the curious thing about this matter in issue, you need to understand the fact that none of these depot owners bought their land from Cardoso, the original owner of the estate who died on February 11,1940. For instance, it was only in 1977, about 37 years after Cardoso’s passing, that one Prince Jeremiah Cousin Mosheshe bought a parcel of land from the six biological children of the late Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso. The Prince, Mosheshe, did not forget to register this land with the Lagos State Land Registry and indeed perfected his title by obtaining Governor’s Consent.

In the next 20 years, more people would acquire varying parcels of land from the late Cardoso children and grandchildren, in the same manner that the children and grandchildren of this Prince Mosheshe also sold parcels of their land acquired from the Cardoso family. Among those that bought their lands from the Mosheshes were some of these fuel depot owners that operate under the aegis of Kirikiri Town Depot Owners’ Association. Having done due diligence and convinced they had a perfect title that paraded the signature item called Governor’s Consent, they commenced their capital intensive petroleum business on these lands.   For over 20 years they ran their businesses without any hindrance. But all that changed on that Tuesday, August 8, 2023, when some Bailiffs and court officials sealed off their properties and many residential buildings in Kirikiri Town.

In their counter affidavit, these purported members of Cardoso family, claimed that Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso died intestate and dispute subsequently arose among his children over the distribution of his property.  They further claimed that some of the children sold some parcels of land without obtaining Letters of Administration to administer the Estate. Then,  after over 75 years of Cardoso’s death, one faction of his family members suddenly instituted a suit against another faction and the final outcome was the sealing of eight depots through a process that may be viewed by the victims as deliberately opaque.

And now, in a publication on Monday, November 20, 2023, the Lawrence Anthonio Cardoso family, led by the Family Head, Chief Tunlese Cardoso,  came out to put up a disclaimer addressed to the Inspector General of Police and the general public describing the  nine judicial adventurists as the unscrupulous members of the family “who have been working with some notorious land grabbers in Lagos to deny people who genuinely bought and leased landed property from our family in Kirikiri Town for a long time, the right to own and enjoy their properties…”.

From this publication alone, it is clear that the owners of the sealed depots and other oil and gas facilities as well as residential buildings are mere victims of a conclave of predatory land owners and the ritual of extortion still pervasive in the acquisition or disposition of family estates in Lagos.

The Executive Governor of the State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu understands these convoluted transactions in his State. For this reason, he allegedly brokered a temporary truce that allows the depot owners to continue to carry out their businesses pending the determination of their appeal. But now, the group of nine and their agents are reportedly threatening to disrupt their business in breach of the deal reached with the Executive Governor. And this is why it is critical for the Executive Governor of Lagos State and, indeed, the Federal Government to make a crucial intervention that will bring about a lasting resolution to this dispute. And the time is now. Anything to the contrary is to set in slow motion a process that will culminate in an  economic catastrophe in Nigeria.