Billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, has revealed an intense encounter with then-Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo that ended with him being called a “stupid boy”.
Otedola divulged the incident in his new book, ‘Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business,’ which is slated for release on August 18.
He said the former president became very angry when told there was a scarcity of diesel in the country, which was blamed on deregulation.
Otedola said Obasanjo accused him of misleading him to deregulate diesel importation, over which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) used to have an absolute monopoly.
Otedola, who was then Chairman of Zenon Petroleum, had assured the president that the private sector could handle a deregulated sector without the NNPC’s involvement, ending the subsidy regime on diesel.
Diesel became the first petroleum product to be deregulated in 2004.
Otedola said, “When President Obasanjo deregulated diesel in 2004, Zenon took an unassailable lead in the market. My opponents’ reaction was to tell the president that we’d turned the market upside down [and that the] economy was about to be brought down because there was no diesel, and Obasanjo was mad at me because he’d sought and received assurances from us that NNPC’s exit from diesel importation wouldn’t affect supply.
“My critics then fanned the flames by telling him there was no diesel in the country, that trucks couldn’t move and that industries were shutting down.”
He said the president called him in the night, fuming over the situation.
Otedola explained, “The President… called me at 2 am, shouting through the phone. ‘You’re a stupid boy! God will punish you! You persuaded me to deregulate diesel, and now there’s no diesel in the country!’ He was livid.
“I flew to Abuja the following day. As soon as Obasanjo saw me, he flew into a rage again. ‘What kind of rubbish is this? What kind of nonsense is this?’ He was right in my face, screaming at the top of his lungs.
“I allowed him to cool down, and when he stopped talking, I tried to explain the situation. ‘Baba, they’re lying to you. It’s all lies. I have six ships waiting to discharge big supplies of diesel.’”
He stated that to convince the president that there was diesel all over the country, he showed him the letters of credit for the cargoes.
Otedola said he further told the president that he was the victim of competitors’ backbiting and was even paying demurrage at the ports where the ships were berthed.
He said he promised the president he would advertise the product’s availability to counter the scarcity narrative.
“I knew it was people in NNPC – the state monopoly, in their now teetering positions of power, who were against deregulation, who’d been telling him these lies. They wanted to continue to import and rake in the subsidy money.
“Obasanjo was a determined and robust president. Jealous people did not easily sway him. Once he made up his mind that someone was trustworthy and genuine, as he seemed to do about me that day, he stopped listening to the naysayers,” Otedola said.
The sun
