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OPINION: Dangote’s Oily Wars

Published

3 months ago

September 29, 2025

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

In February 2025, Daily Trust quoted him as saying:

“I’ve been fighting battles all my life and I have not lost one yet.”

In May 2025, Business Day quoted him as saying: “I have been fighting all my life. And I will win at the end of the day.”

Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group, speaks those words each time there is a war to fight. In the last two, three weeks, I have heard him repeat that statement about fighting all life and winning all the time.

There is a bird in the Yoruba forest called Òrófó. Its mouth is its executioner. If I fought and won all the time, I would not display the trophy all the time.

Each time I hear people boast about their strength and blessings, I reach for my favourite quote:

“Travel and tell no one,

Live a true love story and tell no one,

Live happily and tell no one,

People ruin beautiful things.”

It is one of my priceless quotes; it is from Khalil Gibran, Lebanese-American poet who lived from January 6, 1883 to April 10, 1931. There is a reason why the light travels light; it is because the world is heavy.

Dangote may be correct in his self-assessment as the unbeaten. He is the lion in Nigeria’s industrial jungle. He fought and won in cement, in sugar, in flour. But did he win the noodles war? When he started his refinery project, I heard people who said we should expect another war in that sector. And that is what we see. But if I were him, I would reflect that even the lion has limits. A lion that fights hyenas, leopards, wild dogs, and hunters all at once will soon learn that its roar and paws are not enough. If I were him, I would know that there is a difference between the unbeaten and the unbeatable. I would know that strength spread too thin becomes weakness. A lion who fights every creature in the forest risks exhaustion. It risks even worse: isolation.

The wealthy man who fights and wins all wars now has his hands full. At the beginning of his refinery journey, Aliko fought the regulators over approvals and compliance issues; he crossed that river and turned his cannon on depot owners and marketers; this week he is fighting the unions. And now the unions are responding by shutting the valves. PENGASSAN at the weekend ordered a blitzkrieg on Nigeria’s fuel lifeline: it instructed its members to stop all gas supply to Dangote refinery with immediate effect; it ordered crude oil supply valves to the facility shut; it directed loading operations for vessels headed to the refinery suspended. Its grouse was the mass sack of workers there.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Every democracy ‘Murders Itself’

It has been one war after another, a rolling theatre of conflicts that raises the question: can one man, no matter how wealthy, fight every battle and still win the war?

But the unions are not saints either. Nigerian unions roar justice but feed like hyenas. They thrive in disruption. They fight for rents. A union that turns every quarrel into a weapon or business may one day find that it has destroyed its own leverage.

Sword that destroyed its sheath is homeless. I do not know what democracy calls pulling the plug on a promising patient. But I know that under the military, those who did what PENGASSAN ordered at the weekend were deemed to have committed grievous crimes. Luckily, we are in a democracy.

Shortly before the PENGASSAN bombardment, there was the war with DAPPMAN, the depot owners and marketers. Dangote said they demanded ₦1.5 trillion in hidden subsidies each year. He said he would not pay. He said they wanted him to cover coastal charges and logistics. He insisted that his gantry price was fair. He dared them to sue. The marketers replied that Dangote sold cheaper petrol abroad than at home. They called him disruptive. They accused him of undermining competition. So, the drama grows. The lion roars at unions, at traders, at depot owners, and at those he called the mafia in the oil industry. The elephant struggles with its own bulk. But wisdom says no hunter fights every battle.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: A Minister’s Message To Me

I had this hearty discussion with some friends yesterday. They think the unions were unreasonable and exploitative. I agreed with them but asked them to also check what a monopoly in fuel refining and supply does to national security. All monopolies are dangerous.

I told my friends what a voice told me: If one refinery is the nation’s fuel heart, don’t we know that one strike or sabotage can paralyze the country?

What if the refinery owner even decide to ‘go on strike’ or produce and refuse to sell?

When a country’s situation is as it is, will that be said to be sovereignty? That will be fragility disguised as progress. I hope you agree with this.

No village entrusts its present and future sustenance to one farm, no matter how large. Nigeria does not need monopolies, whether in refineries or in unions. What it needs is balance, competition, and choice.

Nigeria needs competition, not concentration. It needs many refineries, not one. But where are the investors? Where is the government? Why do we need more than the behemoth in Ibeju-Lekki? Foklorists tell of an elephant. It was the envy of the savannah. Grass bent under its feet. Trees shook at its steps. But when drought came, its size became its curse. Its massive body needed more water than the land could give. Smaller animals survived on little streams. The elephant collapsed under its own weight.

That is the risk with this lone refinery. It is an elephant mighty and heavy. The body and its demands are a burden to it. Its operational environment is choky. I pity the promoter. He must have found out too late that this terrain is not solid and firm as concrete; not as soft as dough. The refinery ground is crude, oily, slippery, and treacherous.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: HID Awolowo And The Yoruba Woman

Those who know told me that in this business of refinery and refining, tension will remain forever high because margins are thin. In there, refineries buy crude in dollars; they sell fuel in naira. Debts keep breathing in banks while workers hum discontent with the life they live. As investors juggled the figures to stay afloat, at the UNGA, we heard rhetorics that tell the world to accelerate its movement towards clean energy. Clearly, the elephant carries more weight than the land may sustain.

But what kind of country fears convulsion, or even convulses, because a private company has issues with its stakeholders? Ask around how many refineries Egypt has. Google says Egypt currently has eight operating oil refineries, with a total nameplate capacity of approximately 763,000 barrels per day. And Algeria? Six: five operational, the sixth about to be commissioned. How about small Ghana? I asked Google and this is its final answer: “Ghana currently has two main operational refineries, the state-owned Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) and the Sentuo Oil Refinery… In addition to these two, the nation is also developing the Petroleum Hub Project, a large-scale initiative that includes the construction of three new refineries as part of a three-phase project aiming to significantly reduce Ghana’s reliance on imported refined fuels.” What is Nigeria as a country building? Do not bother to check. If you check, what you will find is 2027.

Back to the feuding Dangote refinery and its union of workers. Negotiation and bargaining and agreeing (rather than stone-throwing) are key in human transactions. In his ‘Bargaining and War’, R. Harrison Wagner notes that “nearly all wars end not because the (feuding parties) are incapable of further fighting but because they agree to stop.”

It is sweet to fight and win. But that is where it ends. The one who killed an elephant with his hat enjoyed the fame for just 24 hours. The next day, everyone avoided him. Enough of unhelpful tough talking and disruptions. As I watch the drama of this oily war, I see the two entitled camps unravelling. I see both sides losing ultimately. But their loss will be our loss, a disaster. The country will grind to a halt.

So, I ask the oily fighters in Lagos to read Khalil Gibran’s ‘The Two Cages’: “In my father’s garden there are two cages. In one is a lion, which my father’s slaves brought from the desert of Ninavah; in the other is a songless sparrow. Every day at dawn, the sparrow calls to the lion, ‘Good morrow to thee, brother prisoner.’”

There is no winner in this war.

News

Edo Targets 2.2 Million Children For Measles, Rubella Vaccination

Published

3 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Editor

The Edo State Government says it is targeting about 2.2 million children aged between 0 and 14 years for measles and rubella vaccination across the state.

The Director of Disease Control and Immunization at the Edo State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Eseigbe Efeomon, who disclosed this during stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting in Benin City, said this would be done in collaboration with development partners.

Efeomon, while noting that the vaccination exercise scheduled to hold simultaneously from January 20 to January 30, 2026, across the 18 local government areas of Edo State at designated health facilities and temporary vaccination posts, said the campaign aims to contribute significantly to the reduction of measles and rubella in Nigeria.

He explained that achieving this target requires increased population immunity through sustained vaccination.

Dr. Efeomon stressed that only qualified and certified health workers would be recruited as vaccinators because the vaccines are injectable.

According to him, the vaccination strategy would involve fixed posts and temporary fixed posts, and vaccination cards would be issued to all vaccinated children as proof, which parents and caregivers are advised to keep for future reference.

He added that vaccination teams would visit schools, churches, mosques, markets, motor parks, internally displaced persons’ camps and other public places, while children who receive the vaccine would be finger-marked to prevent double vaccination.

He reiterated that the overarching goal of the campaign is to drastically reduce rubella incidence nationwide and protect children from preventable diseases through effective immunisation coverage.

Also speaking, the World Health Organization Local Government Facilitator, Mr. Ajaero Paul, described measles and rubella as major causes of death and congenital abnormalities among children globally.

He said both diseases are preventable through the measles-rubella vaccine, which he described as safe and effective,

He added that sustained advocacy is critical to reducing child mortality and lifelong disabilities.

On his part, UNICEF Social and Behavioural Change Health Officer, Yakubu Suleiman, emphasised that the measles-rubella vaccine is safe and effective for all children aged nine months to 14 years.

He stated that the government has fully paid for the vaccines, making them available at no cost to all eligible children in government health facilities across the state.

Suleiman explained that vaccination not only protects individual children but also safeguards communities from deadly vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and rubella.

He added that even children who had previously received the measles vaccine should still be given the measles-rubella vaccine and appealed to schools and other key stakeholders to support the campaign to ensure that no child is left behind.

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Togo, Niger, Benin Owe Nigeria Over $17.8m For Supplied Electricity – NERC

Published

8 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Editor

Nigeria’s electricity regulator has disclosed that three neighbouring countries, Togo, Niger and Benin, are indebted to Nigeria to the tune of $17.8 million, equivalent to more than N25 billion at prevailing exchange rates, for power supplied under bilateral electricity agreements.

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, made this known in its Third Quarter 2025 report, which reviewed market performance within the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI.

According to the report, the international customers were billed a total of $18.69 million by the Market Operator for electricity supplied during the third quarter of 2025. However, only $7.125 million was paid, leaving an unpaid balance of $11.56 million for the period under review.

NERC also revealed that the same international offtakers had outstanding legacy debts amounting to $14.7 million from previous quarters. Of this amount, $7.84 million was settled, leaving a residual balance of $6.23 million.

When combined with the Q3 2025 shortfall, the total outstanding debt stood at $17.8 million, which translates to about N25.36 billion at an exchange rate of N1,425 to one US dollar.

The regulator identified the international electricity customers as Compagnie Énergie Électrique du Togo, Société Béninoise d’Énergie Électrique of Benin Republic, and Société Nigérienne d’Électricité of Niger Republic.

NERC stated that the three utilities collectively paid just $7.125 million against the $18.69 million invoice issued for electricity supplied in the third quarter, resulting in a remittance performance of 38.09 per cent.

This meant that more than half of the billed amount remained unpaid at the close of the quarter.

The commission explained that the electricity exported to the three countries was generated by grid-connected Nigerian generation companies and delivered through cross-border bilateral power supply arrangements.

By contrast, NERC reported a stronger payment performance among domestic bilateral customers. According to the report, local customers paid N3.19 billion out of the N3.64 billion invoiced for the same quarter, representing a remittance rate of 87.61 per cent.

The regulator further noted that some bilateral customers, both international and domestic, made additional payments to offset outstanding invoices from earlier quarters.

Specifically, the Market Operator received $7.84 million from international customers and N1.3 billion from domestic customers in settlement of previous obligations.

Beyond bilateral transactions, NERC disclosed that Nigeria’s 11 electricity distribution companies remitted a total of N381.29 billion to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and the Market Operator in the third quarter of 2025. This was out of a cumulative invoice of N400.48 billion, translating to an overall remittance performance of 95.21 per cent.

The commission said the figures were derived from reconciled market settlement data submitted as of December 18, 2025, as part of its statutory evaluation of the commercial health and performance of the electricity market.

News

Expert Identify Foods That Increase Hypertension Medication’s Effectiveness

Published

15 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Editor

Hypertension remains one of the leading causes of premature death worldwide, contributing significantly to heart disease, stroke, and kidney failure. Despite the availability of effective antihypertensive drugs, long-term control of high blood pressure is often challenging because of drug resistance, side effects, and poor adherence.

This has fueled growing scientific interest in complementary strategies that can enhance drug efficacy while minimising toxicity. One promising approach is the combination of conventional antihypertensive medications with herbs and spices in many kitchens.

Recent evidence suggests that augmenting modern antihypertensive drugs with foods rich in p-coumaric acid, a naturally occurring phenolic acid, may offer a novel and effective strategy for blood pressure control.

Phenolic compounds, commonly found in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes, are known for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and blood vessel–protective properties.

In a study, researchers investigated the combined effects of lisinopril, a widely used antihypertensive drugs and p-coumaric acid on hypertension.

They reported in the Comparative Clinical Pathology that p-coumaric acid enhance the antihypertensive action of lisinopril, potentially allowing for improved blood pressure control without increasing drug dosage.

The study used an established animal model in which hypertension was induced in rats through oral administration of L-NAME, a compound known to suppress nitric oxide production and raise blood pressure.

Following the induction of hypertension, the animals were treated for 14 days with p-coumaric acid (at two different doses), lisinopril alone, or a combination of both.

Untreated hypertensive rats showed significantly elevated activities of key enzymes linked to high blood pressure such as ACE, arginase, acetylcholinesterase, and phosphodiesterase-5 along with increased lipid peroxidation, an indicator of oxidative stress. At the same time, levels of nitric oxide, a critical molecule for blood vessel relaxation, were markedly reduced.

By contrast, rats treated with a combination of lisinopril and p-coumaric acid experienced notable improvements. Blood pressure was better controlled; harmful enzyme activities were reduced, oxidative stress declined, and nitric oxide levels increased. These improvements were mirrored in the tissues the heart compared with untreated hypertensive animals.

They said that the findings suggest that p-coumaric acid may enhance the antihypertensive action of lisinopril, potentially allowing for improved blood pressure control without increasing drug dosage.

This drug–food interaction model is particularly important in the circumstance of long-term hypertension management. Many patients rely on lifelong medication, and strategies that can improve treatment outcomes while reducing side effects are highly desirable.

The study also reinforces the growing recognition that diet is not merely supportive but can be biologically active in disease control.

The use of medicinal plants and plant-based therapies in the management of hypertension is deeply rooted in traditional medicine across many cultures. While such practices have often existed outside conventional healthcare systems, modern scientific research is now providing evidence-based explanations for their effectiveness.

While these findings are based on animal studies and cannot yet be directly translated into clinical recommendations for humans, they open the door to future research on dietary strategies that can safely complement antihypertensive drugs.

Further clinical studies are needed to determine appropriate dosages, safety profiles, and real-world effectiveness.

In the fight against hypertension, the future may lie not only in new drugs, but also in smarter combinations, where medicine and nutrition work together to deliver better, safer outcomes for patients.

Such nutrition to help maintain healthy blood pressure includes garlic, potatoes, walnuts,tomato and tomato products, legumes and citrus fruits (grapefruits and oranges).
(TRIBUNE)