‘God will punish you’ – Nigeria billionaire reveals how Obasanjo insulted him

Business magnate Femi Otedola has disclosed an incident involving former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who reportedly expressed significant anger upon being informed of a diesel scarcity affecting the nation, attributed to deregulation measures.

According to a report by Naija News, Otedola recounted this event in his upcoming publication, titled ‘Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business.’

Otedola described how President Obasanjo’s fury was directed towards him, with the President alleging that Otedola had misled him regarding the deregulation of diesel importation. This deregulation ended the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) previous monopoly over the product.

As the proprietor of Zenon Petroleum, Otedola had previously assured President Obasanjo that the private sector was capable of satisfying local demand without reliance on the NNPC, which was historically selling diesel at below-market prices and receiving subsidy reimbursements from the federal government.

The government officially liberalized the diesel market in 2004, marking it as the first petroleum product to be fully exempt from subsidies, thus concluding the associated rent-seeking culture.

According to The Cable, the billionaire businessman wrote: “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 continued: “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.’”

“I was even paying demurrage. I told the president that I was the victim of competitors’ backbiting,” he wrote, saying he asked Obasanjo to “see what they come up with next… You’ll see that it’s me who’s telling you the truth.”

Otedola said he told Obasanjo he would start advertising the availability and price of diesel on the front page of the newspapers, addressing any concerns about fair and consistent pricing.

He said: “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.”