Beware of landmines on road to promised land

When Bishop Lazi visited Nigeria for the first time, he was unpleasantly surprised by the humongous queues that snaked their way from besieged fuel stations into the sprawling streets of Abuja.

Motorists even slept in queues as fuel shortages took their toll.

And with the fuel shortages came that curious breed of “enterprising” roadside hawkers, who hoarded the scarce commodity to onsell to desperate consumers at extortionate prices.

In a populous country that struggled to generate enough electricity to meet demand, fuel was not only sought after by motorists but also by enterprises of various sizes that wanted to power their businesses.

It was a mess.

Yet this was a country that was considered the largest producer of crude oil in Africa.

In Zimbabwe, a tiny country ensconced deep in Southern Africa and buffeted by sanctions from America, the United Kingdom and Europe, when we had such insufferable queues, before they were banished by President ED, it was at least both explainable and understandable.

So, the Bishop naturally had challenges processing and reconciling this stubborn phenomenon in Nigeria.

It was thus jarring to subsequently learn that, while Nigeria produced crude oil — in fact, a lot of it — it, however, imported all its petroleum requirements as it did not have enough refining capacity.

You see, Nigeria imports the bulk of its petroleum products from Belgium, Netherlands, India, Norway and the UK.

So, at times, logistical challenges and shortages of foreign currency result in pain at the pump.

This essentially helps to explain why Africa might be rich in resources but continues to be mired in grinding poverty.

Those who have the technology to beneficiate the minerals are more than happy to maintain the status quo, which is mainly rigged against African countries.

It was a Nigerian billionaire and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote — a seeming adherent and disciple of the “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo” philosophy, which is grounded in the belief that none but ourselves are our own heroes — who took matters into his own hands by building a refinery.

He has been on it for the past six years or so, culminating in the first production from the Dangote Oil Refinery in January this year.

This massive US$20 billion plant, which is reportedly the equivalent of 4 000 football fields and is capable of producing 650 000 barrels of oil per day, enough to meet local demand, could be revolutionary not only for the Nigerian economy, but the continent as well.

It could save Nigeria in excess of US$10 billion a year through domestic supplies of petroleum products and similarly end more than US$17 billion in oil imports from Europe to Africa.

So, it is potentially a game-changer.

We could all benefit from it.

But, as Dangote was to discover, building one of the world’s largest refineries was not a stroll in the park.

It took grit, graft, blood, sweat and tears.

Most importantly, he discovered, too, that those usual suspects who control world markets were more than eager to throw spanners in the works by sabotaging the project.  Speaking at the 31st African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) annual meetings on June 12 this year in the Bahamas, Dangote revealed that when the Covid-19 pandemic struck, some international banks “were looking forward to making sure that they push us into default of our loans so that the project will just be dead”.

This is not all.

While the refinery might have been opened in January, it continues to struggle to get crude oil for processing, as international oil companies prefer exporting the product. The Bishop, however, would like to draw your attention to a recent sinister plot, where a London-headquartered non-governmental organisation (NGO), Dialogue Earth, which purports to produce exceptional environmental journalism, reportedly tried to bribe a Nigerian journalist David Hundeyin to write a damning article on the ostensible damage to the environment that was likely to be wrought by the oil refinery.

At a time when there is frenzied discussion on environmental issues, what with the existential threat posed by climate change, writing about the impact of the refinery on the environment seemed to be a compelling story.

Here in our teapot-shaped Republic, we are all too familiar with such shenanigans.

Over the past five years, we have seen the emergence of a phalanx of NGOs deliberately targeting Chinese investors who are accused of all manner of crimes.

There are no prices for guessing who is sponsoring them, though.

Call it what you will, but this is a cautionary tale of the hurdles we all have to jump over, including as a region, in order to break the cycle of perpetually exporting raw materials and importing finished products.

The world, as currently configured, works against Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) included, as it is meant to condemn us as suppliers of feedstock for industries elsewhere, thereby exporting jobs when they are desperately needed by burgeoning youthful populations back home.

But the Bishop is confident that Nigeria will eventually get there.

Psalm 21 verse 11 teaches us: “Though they plan evil against you, though they devise mischief, they will not succeed.”

Micah 2:1-3 adds: “Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance.

“Therefore, the Lord says: ‘I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.’”

Saving more than US$10 billion through import substitution of petroleum products will have a huge impact on Nigeria’s economy, releasing the strain on its scarce foreign currency reserves.

The impact on jobs is also immense.

In addition to employing more than 3 000 people, the refinery will also create 100 000 indirect jobs.

Spat over second-hand clothes

It would be remiss for Bishop Lazi not to mention another cautionary tale, which involved the spat between Rwanda and the United States over tariffs on second-hand clothing.

The misunderstanding stemmed from the decision by Rwanda in June 2016 to hike duties on second-hand clothes by US20 cents to US$2,50 per kilogramme as part of a strategy to safeguard and promote domestic manufacturing.

Overall, this was part of a broad plan hatched by East African countries to completely ban imports by 2019.

After lobbying by the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association — a US-based group representing companies that gather and sell on old clothes from America — Washington then gave Kigali a 60-day notice period to reduce its tariff or risk being kicked out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which ostensibly permits duty-free US imports on about 6 500 goods.

It might be worth remembering that at the time, the US used clothing business was worth nearly US$1 billion. This is big business.

The moral of the story is: Inasmuch as we would want to industrialise and promote our industries, the usual suspects are determined to perpetually subject us to the indignities of wearing their old lingerie.

So, it will take nothing short of grit, graft, blood, sweat and tears for SADC to industrialise, as it is determined and committed to do.

Leading the way

Fortunately, for Zimbabwe, which has been under the yoke of illegal sanctions for more than two decades, it has had to pull itself up by its own bootstraps through ingenious and bold policy measures.

Like Dangote, Zimbabweans are now at the centre of developing their own country.

Local companies are the ones that are building roads, a task that used to be reserved for foreign firms.

Zimbabweans are the ones who are building their own dams and leading the current renaissance in agriculture.

Overall, Zimbabweans are the ones who will take the country to the promised land.

All this makes President ED’s leadership of SADC auspicious at this pivotal juncture in the evolution of the bloc.

So, it will be SADC that will take regional countries to the promised land; just as it will be Africans who will take Africa to the promised land.

It might be onerous, but it is doable.

Bishop out!