Analysts have hailed Dangote Refinery for representing a historic pivot toward self-sufficiency and national economic liberation. This comes after Aliko Dangote took the bold step to actualize Nigeria’s long-standing dream to refine its own crude oil.
Experts recently gave the Billionaire businessman his flowers while speaking during the latest edition of the Toyin Falola Interviews, a widely followed intellectual forum streamed live across Facebook, YouTube, and X.
The session, themed “Dangote, Oil and Power in Nigeria,” united several respected scholars, governance experts and labour rights advocates, including Professors Victor Oguejiofor Okafor, Mobolaji Ebenezer Aluko, Ehiedu Goodluck Iweriebor, Jibrin Ibrahim, governance scholar John Onyeukwu, and labour veteran Comrade Owei Lakemfa.
Renowned historian Professor Toyin Falola revealed that Dangote Refinery deserves praise for his historic intervention that completely changed Nigeria’s industrial destiny.
According to him, the refinery reminds citizens to rebuke the government for its failure to maintain public refineries amid the lingering dependence on fuel importation despite Nigeria being a major oil producer.
He stated that Dangote’s futuristic idea is proof of how critical infrastructure will always require private intervention to thrive in the country.
“This refinery is a historic intervention in Nigeria’s industrial destiny. It disrupts a tragic pattern in which a major oil-producing nation relies on others to refine the very resource that sustains its economy. For decades, structural dependence has been our reality; this project challenges that legacy,” he said.
Professor Ehiedu Goodluck Iweriebor, a historian of modern Africa, further noted that domestic refining is a welcome development because it helps to save billions in foreign exchange.
He concluded by saying that not only will Dangote Refinery decrease pressure on the naira, it will also create economic linkages in transportation, manufacturing and technological innovation.
“Since 1974, Africa — and especially Nigeria — has been trapped in a fuel quagmire. Dangote’s entry into refining is a liberation mechanism, not only in economic terms but in historical terms. It marks a determined effort to end a cycle of dependency that has crippled African development.
This is an African renaissance in motion. It is a practical expression of the continent’s long-standing desire to control its resources and dictate its economic fate,” he added.
