ON Monday, May 22, 2023, Nigerians glowed with pride as the long-awaited Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company finally opened its doors for business. To show how significant the event was, President Muhammadu Buhari led five other African presidents to unveil the gargantuan project.

The Refinery boasts intimidating credentials. It is the largest single-train refinery in the world with 650,000 barrels per day refining capacity as well as a 900 kilo tonnes per annum, KTPA, polypropylene plant. It is powered by its self-generated 435 megawatts of electricity. The refinery, when functioning at full capacity, is capable of supplying all of Nigeria’s needs in petrol, diesel, kerosene and other byproducts of refined hydrocarbon.

The coming of this refinery will give Nigerian citizens the mastery of modern refining technology, and 900 engineers have been trained for round-the-clock operations. It also presents massive employment opportunities, as between 40,000 and 57,000 workers will be directly employed, while up to 300,000 Nigerians will earn their living doing business with the refinery.

We join millions of Nigerians to welcome this epoch-making achievement which will be a major foreign exchange earner for the country as it is strictly modelled for international business.

While we rejoice at the realisation of this dream, there are certain things Nigerians expect from this company. Though a global operator, Dangote Refinery must be relevant in the lives of Nigerians through whose business support Alhaji Aliko Dangote emerged as one of the wealthiest people in the world.

We expect the refinery to help in ending fuel scarcity in Nigeria. In collaboration with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd and with the policy support of the Federal Government, we believe that the refinery can supply fuel to Nigerians at affordable prices while still selling worldwide at global market rates. Dangote can play a leading role in implementing subsidy removal with a human face.

This can be done through an arrangement whereby the refinery is supplied crude for local consumption at subsidised prices. Instead of the money-guzzling practice of subsidising finished imported products, we can subsidise the crude to be refined strictly for local consumption. The law enforcement agencies should do their work and deal with smuggling.

We also expect that Dangote Refineries will not enjoy a monopoly. Indeed, strenuous efforts must be made to bring the old government refineries fully back, while more private and modular refineries should be encouraged. As a major oil producer, we should be a major supplier of finished products to the world.

We hope the coming of this game-changer will not become a source of nightmare for those living in the Lekki axis.

With this project successfully realised, there is hope that we can still crack the mystery of the Ajaokuta Steel project to elevate our heavy industry capacity.