The Times article was clearly a puff piece that any discerning reader would easily detect. I've followed your Dangote "hating" over the years and agree with a lot of the analysis. My thoughts are around what the counterfactual sans Dangote would have been, given the political economy of Nigeria. This is, of course, impossible to answer, but if evidence from Otedola's "making it big" is anything to go by, the average rich Nigerian man is hardly sacrificing his rent-seeking wealth to take on the arduous task of building a refinery. For taking on this risky effort, I believe Dangote has, at the very least, earned the right to a lap of honour in the NYT. You, of course, are also well within your rights to critique it.
The nature of the "risk" here needs to be contextualized. He is investing in a market with an oligopolistic structure, which is not really a huge deviation from the country's rent-seeking political economy. Secondly, this investment was entirely a private choice. What was the market size projection before making this investment - because I think where the most criticism is inveighed is when he tries to socialize the risk by like strongly lobbying for import bans. There are also two negative externalities here. Usually, for a country of Nigeria's development profile, it will be better for an investment of this scale to be export facing and help facilitate the transfer of FX, tech and know-how into the country. If you allow me a little shameless plug, I wrote here about the nature of Nigeria's rent-seeking economy and many of the weak arguments for it https://www.1914reader.com/p/the-food-wars
But there's an additional channel that I missed - which that for a project of this scale to be entirely import-substituting is a massive FX drain because of the scale of input needs.
To end on a note that is very much close to you - it is quite telling that many of most promising startups, products, and billion dollars future-facing businesses in the country are building without the richest people in the country investing in them directly or via any know proxies.
It's always fun to see ways in which the NYT continues to reflect the attitudes and biases of its hometown, despite having become such an outsized behemoth in the new industry. The veracity of any reporting about Dangote, or any individual really, it's good to remember that New York loves what you could charitably call an avatar but could also be described as a media production. This isn't anything against the city where I live and which I love, just one of the things that are part of the fabric.
What makes it work (in the long run), is that the spectacle of the fall is just as gratifying to the city as the original media production. Assuming continued coverage of Nigeria, in 5-7 years the NYT piece discussed, which based on THIS piece seems credulous to the point of malpractice, will be subsumed (but not referenced!) by another piece lambasting Dangote's many sins.
When you're up you're up, when you're down you're down.
Instead of him to put money in campaign, he's doing "pick me" or...?
Elections are coming and not only BUA and Elumelu should be desirable. He wants in too.
I expect to see even more desperate stories and claims by him in the media. The new Africa pivot is most ridiculous of his media arc yet. Now, he wants to develop all of Africa...lol, dude.
The Times article was clearly a puff piece that any discerning reader would easily detect. I've followed your Dangote "hating" over the years and agree with a lot of the analysis. My thoughts are around what the counterfactual sans Dangote would have been, given the political economy of Nigeria. This is, of course, impossible to answer, but if evidence from Otedola's "making it big" is anything to go by, the average rich Nigerian man is hardly sacrificing his rent-seeking wealth to take on the arduous task of building a refinery. For taking on this risky effort, I believe Dangote has, at the very least, earned the right to a lap of honour in the NYT. You, of course, are also well within your rights to critique it.
The nature of the "risk" here needs to be contextualized. He is investing in a market with an oligopolistic structure, which is not really a huge deviation from the country's rent-seeking political economy. Secondly, this investment was entirely a private choice. What was the market size projection before making this investment - because I think where the most criticism is inveighed is when he tries to socialize the risk by like strongly lobbying for import bans. There are also two negative externalities here. Usually, for a country of Nigeria's development profile, it will be better for an investment of this scale to be export facing and help facilitate the transfer of FX, tech and know-how into the country. If you allow me a little shameless plug, I wrote here about the nature of Nigeria's rent-seeking economy and many of the weak arguments for it https://www.1914reader.com/p/the-food-wars
But there's an additional channel that I missed - which that for a project of this scale to be entirely import-substituting is a massive FX drain because of the scale of input needs.
To end on a note that is very much close to you - it is quite telling that many of most promising startups, products, and billion dollars future-facing businesses in the country are building without the richest people in the country investing in them directly or via any know proxies.
A textbook case of 'Growth' without Development
It's always fun to see ways in which the NYT continues to reflect the attitudes and biases of its hometown, despite having become such an outsized behemoth in the new industry. The veracity of any reporting about Dangote, or any individual really, it's good to remember that New York loves what you could charitably call an avatar but could also be described as a media production. This isn't anything against the city where I live and which I love, just one of the things that are part of the fabric.
What makes it work (in the long run), is that the spectacle of the fall is just as gratifying to the city as the original media production. Assuming continued coverage of Nigeria, in 5-7 years the NYT piece discussed, which based on THIS piece seems credulous to the point of malpractice, will be subsumed (but not referenced!) by another piece lambasting Dangote's many sins.
When you're up you're up, when you're down you're down.
Hahaha...I genuinely laughed out loud!
Instead of him to put money in campaign, he's doing "pick me" or...?
Elections are coming and not only BUA and Elumelu should be desirable. He wants in too.
I expect to see even more desperate stories and claims by him in the media. The new Africa pivot is most ridiculous of his media arc yet. Now, he wants to develop all of Africa...lol, dude.
Check the comments of that Times article to see what is happening. The author is in there boosting praise for him. Shameful stuff
Feyi didn’t let the Times get away with a puff piece.
I wonder if some of the things you classified as "nitpicks" were down to the wrong use of LLMs for writing