Dangote vs Farouk: Between Monopoly and a Cold-Blooded Rentier System
Daily Rendezvous By Mohammed Ismail The recent degeneration of the open conflict between Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and Ahmed Farouk, the immediate past chief executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), into a full-blown public war has torn the veil off one of Nigeria’s most opaque and innately corrupt systems; the oil sector. What initially appeared to be a regulatory impasse has quickly morphed into a full blown battle that exposes the contradictions, hypocrisies, and entrenched interests that define Nigeria’s oil and gas economy. It must be stated from the outset that this fight is not being waged in the interest of the Nigerian masses. The ordinary citizen, who has borne the brunt of decades of fuel scarcity, subsidy scams, and economic sabotage, remains a spectator in a contest driven by greed, quest for economic control and intra elite power struggles. Since crude oil was d...