Nigerian Students Pass Vote Of Confidence in Dangote Refinery

Students across tertiary institu­tions in the country under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have passed a vote of confidence on the Dangote Refinery, describing the recent demarketing of the world’s largest single train refinery as the greatest disservice to the nation’s economy.

The students’ position came amid alleged efforts to induce the students body’s leadership with $250,000 to dissuade it from going ahead to declare support for Dan­gote Refinery.

Speaking after a tour of the refinery facility on Thursday in Lagos, leaders of the students’ body comprising of those from universities, polytechnics and col­leges of education, said it would take an enemy of Nigeria to rub­bish the gigantic project that would stop importation of fuel once and for all and save the nation of the scarce forex.

The NANS Senate President, Akinteye Babatunde Afiz, ad­dressing the management of the Dangote Refinery said they had the mandate of Nigerian students to come and assess the situation of the refinery having been told that the refinery was uncompleted and inferior in all standards.

He said: “We had a meeting on the situation in the country vis a vis the uncertainty in the oil and gas industry, especially the current fuel scarcity and we resolved to vis­it Dangote refinery to see things for ourselves, Having gone round the facility, our heart melted at the hu­mongous size of the refinery.

“We are speaking the minds of all Nigerian students that govern­ment should direct all marketers to patronise Dangote refinery and ease the current fuel hardship. If anyone wants to compete with Dangote let them go and build their own. Government has four refineries and they are not work­ing yet they don’t want the one that is available to sell. We will not accept that.

“Dangote Refinery has come to stay. We have discovered that all claims being bandied around are false. Our impression is that they never expected the refinery to stand, that is why they are against you. But we are pledging our re­solve to stand by you.

“We have seen the refinery lab­oratory and we could see that it is world class. We cant allow this type of project that holds great potential for Nigeria’s economy to go down through some people’s disdain for the success of Alhaji Aliko Dan­gote.” He then urged the govern­ment to do all possible to support Dangote Refinery and protect it from saboteurs.

Earlier, the Vice-President, Dangote Industries Limited, Deva­kumar Edwin, while welcoming the student leaders to the refinery thanked them for the concern for the facility and the resolve to stand for the truth by rejecting the mone­tary inducement.

He told the students that Pres­ident Tinubu has intervened and commended the president for the directive for crude to be sold to Dangote Refinery in naira curren­cy, saying it is a good development for all Nigerians.

Edwin said the concern of the students was well placed as all Ni­gerians should be worried indeed because about 90 percent of Ni­geria forex goes into importation of fuel and that Dangote Refinery could help solve the problem as 43 percent of its capacity production could satisfy domestic demand while the remaining will be export­ed to generate more forex into the country.

Wondering why anyone would want to frustrate the refinery, Ed­win noted, “So much has been spent on the government refiner­ies and there was nothing to show for it as they remained moribund.

“What we want to do in refin­ery, we have done it in other busi­nesses. Nigeria used to be the big­gest importer of sugar, we came in and changed the narrative. We led the backward integration scheme of the Federal Government, and we now produce sugar locally for domestic consumption and oth­ers have joined us. We did same in cement by opening up production plant and today Nigeria exports cement to other countries.

“In a business, no one was interested in investing into, Dan­gote delved into it determined to ensure Nigeria no longer imports fuel, invested massively and come up with the world’s largest single train refinery.”

He said he would not take his money to Dubai or Swiss banks as others are doing, he decided to in­vest at home and now they are say­ing he wants to create monopoly.

“We didn’t ask for any favour other than that we want to buy crude to produce, first they said there was no crude, later they said we would have to pay some dollars above the prevailing crude market price. And this is a global market where you can track crude prices anytime. We resorted to buying crude from Brazil and United States. Later they said we should not be an­nouncing the price of the products.