Femi Otedola, Obasanjo Clashed Over Diesel Shortage in Nigeria
- In his upcoming memoir, Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, Femi Otedola recounts a heated argument with former President Olusegun Obasanjo
- Obasanjo was furious after discovering that deregulation caused a nationwide diesel shortage, accusing Otedola of deceiving him.
- Otedola defended his actions, explaining that the diesel was available and suggesting public advertisements to counter misinformation, ultimately gaining Obasanjo's trust
Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola has revealed in his memoir, Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, set to be released on August 18, 2025, that he had a heated argument with former President Olusegun Obasanjo over the deregulation of diesel importation in 2004.
Source: Getty Images
Obasanjo was so incensed that he accused Otedola of deceiving him into deregulating the importation of the product.
The oil tycoon described in extracts from the book, obtained by TheCable, how Obasanjo became furious upon learning that deregulation had caused a nationwide shortage of diesel. Obasanjo had been persuaded by Otedola, who at the time owned Zenon Petroleum, that the private sector could meet Nigeria's diesel needs without the help of the NNPC, which had been reselling imported fuel at a discount and receiving reimbursement from the federal government for subsidies.
The business tycoon 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 collapse 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 a.m., 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.’”
Otedola contended that diesel was available nationwide and that he was even incurring demurrage charges as a result of his trucks' delayed offloading.
“I was even paying demurrage. I told the president that I was the victim of competitors’ backbiting,” he wrote, adding that 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 claimed that to comfort the public and allay concerns about prices, he suggested to Obasanjo that they post advertisements about the availability and cost of diesel on the front pages of national newspapers to refute the false information.
Source: Getty Images
“I knew it was people in the 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."
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“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,” he added.
In 2004, the Nigerian government liberalised the diesel market, removing the rent culture that accompanied it, making it the first petroleum product to be completely free of subsidies.
Real story behind Otedola’s financial crisis
Legit.ng reported that Femi Otedola has disclosed how, during the height of his business empire, banks used 'bewitching ladies' to secure his loans and deposits.
In passages from the book seen by TheCable, the oil magnate explained how a succession of financial problems, including the global drop in crude oil prices and the devaluation of the naira, left his enterprises heavily indebted and under enormous pressure.
He described how his fortunes drastically changed, saying, "At one point, I was the banks' darling, and they did everything in their power to court me, do business with me, give me loans, and take deposits from me."
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Source: Legit.ng
