Read the FT article. I must admit surprise at its almost adulatory tone for Aliko’s refinery enterprise. It was definitely a sharp contrast with all your previous commentary. Was this a reconsideration in the light of the additional benefits made manifest by Gulf War III? Or perhaps going mainstream requires putting on the kids gloves?
Does it matter? Not so much except that there is a surfeit of Dangote hagiography particularly at this moment across all the leading Western business and finance media, and frankly, it was always a pleasure to hear from people who take a different view. It’s beginning to look like the holdout skeptics have been worn over at last and the Alhaji has won again.
You have a tendency to make arguments that you think make you sound clever. Here you are starting from a question in your head and then by the end of the comment you have answered your own (silly) question. In that case there is nothing else for me to add
Ouch! That’s a tiny bit harsh. To be clear, it was not silly (or even clever) to wonder about your changed views on Aliko Dangote. Nor should it be uncomfortable to the point of being so defensive about embracing your new convictions.
Until you confirmed it, I had no way of knowing what drove your change of mind. It was reasonable to ask or muse aloud about it. If you have put out column inches (correctly) questioning the impact of his dominance on markets, the allocation of capital and consumer welfare, then it is foreseeable that people in your audience would ask why you’re singing a new tune. Would you not have been very surprised if no one had asked?
Nothing confirmed or changed anything. This is just a figment of your overactive imagination and your usual unwarranted self-regard. In all the years I have been unfortunate to receive comment from you, I have never known you to express an original thought beyond the usual motivated reasoning.
You opened your comment with "almost adulatory" as the framing. I am convinced you did not read past the headline since I did not even mention him in the piece beyond to say that he announced the expansion. I wrote about the refinery and the sacrifice that Nigerians have made to bring it to life including taking the body blow of subsidy removal. I also wrote about why Nigerians may be projecting hope on to it and drew a historical parallel with America.
Here you are going on and on and on like a malfunctioning shahed drone because basic understanding has once again eluded you. It has not even been a month since I wrote a critical piece of him here and I still tweeted about cement yesterday.
But in this imagined world you have constructed entirely inside the confines of your head, I have done a sudden about-turn and I'm now his praise singer.
Given that you have always been unmoored from reality, why not take the matter to its logical conclusion and say he has "reached out to me" and perhaps bank details were exchanged? It need not be true, you simply need to think it in your head
Alhaji Dangote has, in many different ways, won over sceptics over the years, even more feisty sceptics than you were. It’s not that the concerns people including you raise are not real. Nor do the expediencies of the Trump war invalidate the long-term potential costs of monopolies and regulatory capture.
Here is the truth: he was never the boogeyman some people made him out to be. Nor was he the Messiah of some people’s acclaim. He was a feature of the Nigerian system, not its cause. The fundamental error, common to both sides, was to assign him more agency than he deserved.
Read the FT article. I must admit surprise at its almost adulatory tone for Aliko’s refinery enterprise. It was definitely a sharp contrast with all your previous commentary. Was this a reconsideration in the light of the additional benefits made manifest by Gulf War III? Or perhaps going mainstream requires putting on the kids gloves?
Does it matter? Not so much except that there is a surfeit of Dangote hagiography particularly at this moment across all the leading Western business and finance media, and frankly, it was always a pleasure to hear from people who take a different view. It’s beginning to look like the holdout skeptics have been worn over at last and the Alhaji has won again.
You have a tendency to make arguments that you think make you sound clever. Here you are starting from a question in your head and then by the end of the comment you have answered your own (silly) question. In that case there is nothing else for me to add
Ouch! That’s a tiny bit harsh. To be clear, it was not silly (or even clever) to wonder about your changed views on Aliko Dangote. Nor should it be uncomfortable to the point of being so defensive about embracing your new convictions.
Until you confirmed it, I had no way of knowing what drove your change of mind. It was reasonable to ask or muse aloud about it. If you have put out column inches (correctly) questioning the impact of his dominance on markets, the allocation of capital and consumer welfare, then it is foreseeable that people in your audience would ask why you’re singing a new tune. Would you not have been very surprised if no one had asked?
Nothing confirmed or changed anything. This is just a figment of your overactive imagination and your usual unwarranted self-regard. In all the years I have been unfortunate to receive comment from you, I have never known you to express an original thought beyond the usual motivated reasoning.
You opened your comment with "almost adulatory" as the framing. I am convinced you did not read past the headline since I did not even mention him in the piece beyond to say that he announced the expansion. I wrote about the refinery and the sacrifice that Nigerians have made to bring it to life including taking the body blow of subsidy removal. I also wrote about why Nigerians may be projecting hope on to it and drew a historical parallel with America.
Here you are going on and on and on like a malfunctioning shahed drone because basic understanding has once again eluded you. It has not even been a month since I wrote a critical piece of him here and I still tweeted about cement yesterday.
But in this imagined world you have constructed entirely inside the confines of your head, I have done a sudden about-turn and I'm now his praise singer.
Given that you have always been unmoored from reality, why not take the matter to its logical conclusion and say he has "reached out to me" and perhaps bank details were exchanged? It need not be true, you simply need to think it in your head
Alhaji Dangote has, in many different ways, won over sceptics over the years, even more feisty sceptics than you were. It’s not that the concerns people including you raise are not real. Nor do the expediencies of the Trump war invalidate the long-term potential costs of monopolies and regulatory capture.
Here is the truth: he was never the boogeyman some people made him out to be. Nor was he the Messiah of some people’s acclaim. He was a feature of the Nigerian system, not its cause. The fundamental error, common to both sides, was to assign him more agency than he deserved.