Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime
I watched a special report on CNN about Aliko Dangote building a refinery in Lagos. The richest man on Africa is building a 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery that is designed to turn the country’s crude oil into gasoline for hungry consumers. Ceteris Paribus, it should be online in 2018.
Now isn’t this ironic that as he is building this massive project, some so-called “patriotic” Nigerians supposedly fighting for their rights, namely the Niger Delta Avengers, are busy blowing up pipelines.
It is also amazing that these same people have been fighting for development of their areas for a long time but this has not happened because………
I choose to leave the statement hanging because these same people have had leaders and rulers that have gotten money in various forms but have not developed their lands.
What befuddles me is that Aliko Dangote is from the Northern part of Nigeria and he is building a refinery in Lagos. The owners of the so-called “Oil” do not seem to have any prominent, patriotic son of the soil that should have built a refinery in their states. Not that they do not have the money, they just chose not to build. They would rather be comfortable waiting for rent money, instead of entering into joint ventures or arrangements that would enable them to build refineries. They would rather be comfortable with “getting the fish for the day instead of learning how to fish.”
How could they have thought that the rent the past government was paying them was going to be forever? They had the chance to negotiate with the government to build refineries and develop their lands but they chose to live for the day.
I do believe that there may be people who may say that it is not that simple. But hey, who says Life is that simple? When there is a will, there is a way.
I would urge the people of the Niger Delta region to choose a better path that would lead to the development of their lands, rather than blowing up pipelines. Who knows if the region was safe, Aliko Dangote would have built his refinery there.
