Perry Brimah: When Dangote comes for your land

by Peregrino Brimah

fashola_Dangote

Call us haters of the wealthy? We do not hate the rich… well, not any more than they hate us, the poor. And one day soon will be their day of reckoning, and a leash will be put around their vulture necks.

Celebrated as the world’s wealthiest black man, Dangote’s known wealth stands at up to 16 billion US dollars and keeps rising. Dangote and other cabal are the one thing that works in Nigeria. As conditions get more unbearable for Nigeria and the poor become more numerous… numbers of destitute—living under a dollar-a-day—according to Nigeria’s Bureau of Statistics (NBS) having doubled from 50 million to 100 million between midway into the Obasanjo regime to now, during his godson GEJ’s tenure, Dangote and co’s wealth has quadrupled over the same period.

It is hard not to recognize the inverse relationship between the amassing of wealth to global bewilderment by the cabal and the increasing hardship and frustration of Nigeria and Africa’s masses. Is it so easy to run a business and make wealth in Nigeria, so much so that a Nigerian can easily quadruple his wealth with a speed unseen globally, becoming a world top 40 faster than a Ferrari does 0-60? Well it is, if you transfer the livelihood and sustenance of millions to a few with every means possible, particularly all essentials of life—land, housing, fuel, communication and food. This is the Dangote-Political cabal get-rich-quick equation.

How To Become A Nigerian Billionaire For Dummies:

Sponsor a politician and party. If you wish to be a Dangote, sponsor both sides of the aisle, all parties. Most politicians will take the money—Buhari though reportedly rejected 200 million from Dangote during his 2011 bid. Next, after the candidates and parties win, prepare to buy privatized or rather, cabalized assets. These are national assets purposefully sabotaged then ‘refurbished’ for trillions of naira and sold to you for peanuts. Dangote bought our cement assets. He even bought our refineries, but late Yar’adua of blessed memory overturned the fraudulent sale. Secure oil blocs, contracts and what have you. Next, get import waivers to import equipment related to the purchase and all other things you wish to import, depriving the masses of import duties to the tune of billions.

The final stage in money quadrupling is, have the government force the people to buy from you and you alone. This is sometimes done by law or by style. Dangote had said once that in 1996 the government mandated him to import so much rice to crush and run local farmers and traders out of business. This caused the local market to crash by more than 80%, he said.

With this simple formula, you will soon be recognized as the ‘smartest’ and wealthiest businessman, because unlike other ‘dumb’ competitors, you do not pay import duties, you are given virtually free suitable seized land by the government and other advantages and helped to run a monopoly with exorbitant prices as you like it. Aspiring businesses have severally complained about how the government helps Dangote by using customs to seize or impound their goods if on the Dangote-exclusive import line, till the goods expire, etc.

Today according to news reports, Lagos land owners are complaining against the noise of a rented pro-Dangote crowd, that their local SELL-OUT chiefs gave them N10,000 for ‘transport,’ only later to be told that it was payment for their land to be used by Aliko Dangote and the Lagos state government for billionaire projects. What better way of becoming billionaires and trillionaires than exploiting millions of wretched masses with the help of the law? And anytime the government stands in your way, simply pull the Dangote card.

As he always does, tell them, and actually close down one of your branches, claiming that the gumption of the government, daring to allow competitors into your cornered oligopolistic market has forced you to close the company and send hundreds of workers home. The impotent government will sharply quiver and stop all competition, pronto. See: “Dangote Cement to shut Gboko Plant” in Punch of Dec. 6, 2012. (As a side- it is time we progressive youth dump all our useless chief’s and pick up the mantle in our communities. Form our social structures and direct our destiny).

Today, Aliko Dangote sells his cement at triple the global mean, thanks to the nation’s benevolence with his purchasing our cement factories for cheap; thanks to billions he saved in multiple, continuous import waivers, thanks to years he gained with sole duty free cement and cement product importation, and all other advantages from us, that gave him sudden, rapid immense wealth. See: Punch, March 21, 2013, “Cement Prices Defy Laws of Demand and Supply.”

Houses collapse, being constructed with ‘managed’ cement the owners could barely afford. Fewer homes are built; and many have not been re-built after the government neglect flood that ravaged our communities. The price of all other building materials remains doubled in comparative economics of cost principles and the poor become poorer, unable to own homes and being relegated to renting from few wealthy landlords. But of course DANGCEM records double quarterly profits for himself and his local and foreign investor cabal. The lucky man, he was given the same advantages by Obasanjo in 1977 as he was given again in the 90’s after he financed Obasanjo’s return… and he still enjoys them today after financing GEJ, OBJ’s son.

Recent news has it that Nigeria government has begun to use cement (Dangote) for road construction. More accurately, as 2015 comes, Dangote, the nation’s oligopolist cement daddy is being given a huge raise and incentive to encourage him make gigantic political donations.

Worse enemies than the politicians to Nigeria’s masses are the cabal, who usually hide out of the line of media fire, but are behind most criminal governments and the harsh exploitative anti-people policies. These cabal derail the nations democracy and sabotage small businesses, condemning millions to poverty with their only hope being- slave labor employment under cabal industries.

Don’t for a second think there is no link between the sabotage of our oil refineries, the removal of the fake oil subsidy and sweet sales of investment stock in Dangote’s proposed oil refinery business. Unlike us sheeple, who think short term and are usually investing and preoccupied with the European business rewarding amusement of men kicking ball, Arsenal and ManU and when not, embroiled in primitive ethnic and tribal battles, these vultures plot and plan on our lives for years ahead. The word, ‘amuse,’ is no accident. A-muse, ‘A’= don’t, and ‘muse’ = think; don’t think, be amused.

We all celebrate Dangote, don’t we? He gives us jobs, he is charitable. With the help of the government, he steals national wealth worth trillions and then employs 100,000 Nigerians as slave-workers, a wonderful favor. If he did not employ us to run his industries, what will he use? Goats? We are lucky he is not using goats instead of us sheep.

And unlike other Nigerians who stole money and dumped it abroad, at least Dangote invests loot for the political cabal at home. Really? If you call setting up traps to extort masses, companies, then yes. These so-called businessmen can never run a company for a day anywhere outside Africa. Their methods are Handicap Capital Venture Economics (HCVE).

Handicap the masses and venture to rob them. We do not need to manufacture if it will not yield an advantage for the broke masses. No be by force. Economies are built on the things States have a comparative advantage over, not by stealing from the poor with exploitative manufacturing. I personally will prefer to purchase imported cement at $4, than buy each bag at $11 so a certain Dangote can celebrate his wealth building skills (steals) by what the US calls, the beggar-thy-countrymen Dangote model, and he uses the wealth he squeezed out of my pocket to pay the way for the next numskull to win as governor and president!

Call us haters of the wealthy? We do not hate the rich… well, not any more than they hate us, the poor. And one day soon will be their day of reckoning, and a leash will be put around their vulture necks.

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 Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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