President Obasanjo said that we had been producing cement in Nigeria for almost 60 years, yet we were still importing. Most of the cement in Nigeria was imported, yet we had all the natural resources to make cement.

"This kept me up one night and I couldn't sleep. I phoned Aliko at 5am. He sounded sleepy, so I asked if I had woken him and he replied that he was awake.

I asked him to see me at 7am.

He replied that it was bad enough that I had woken him, but now I was asking him to see me at 7am when the first flight from Lagos to Abuja was 7am.

I asked how soon he could see me and he said 9am.

He came at exactly 9am.

I asked him why he was still importing cement when everything necessary to make cement was available in Nigeria.

He said, "Mr President, it is cheaper to import cement than it is to manufacture cement in Nigeria.

I asked him what he needs in order to be able to make cement in Nigeria.

He replied, "Make it as easy to make cement in Nigeria as it is to import.

I still hadn't got the answer so I asked him, "What do I need to do to make you manifacture cement in Nigeria"?

He said, "Tie my importation of cement to my manifacturing of cement in Nigeria".

I said that he should go. I have gotten my answer."


President Obasanjo had asked Dangote if he was sure that he could make cement in Nigeria. Dangote said that he could produce 50 million metric tonnes of cement. President Obasanjo told him to bring a plan for 50 million metric tonnes, which he did.

Obasanjo said that senior civil servants told him that Dangote was lying and that he could not produce 50 million tonnes of cement and that he just wanted import licenses. Obasanjo said that he simply thought, "We shall see".

He said that Dangote was building the largest cement plant in Africa and he (Obasanjo) put two security people at the plant. They reported back to Obasanjo on activities at the plant. Any day that work did not take place, they would tell Obasanjo and Obasanjo would call Dangote and tell him that there was no work at the site and Dangote would tell Obasanjo the reason why it was so.

One day Dangote came to Obasanjo and told him that he (Obasanjo) made him worried. President Obasanjo said that he thought that he had done something wrong. Dangote said that the plant was a private business, not government business, yet it seemed like President Obasanjo knew more about what was happening at the plant than him who owned the plant.

President Obasanjo replied that the plant was very important to every Nigerian, therefore it was not just a private business, it was a Nigeria business.

President Obasanjo said that thankfully the plant was commissioned just before he left office.


He said that he began taking Dangote out. He took Dangote to Ethiopia and introduced him to President Meles, took him to Senegal and introduced him to President Wade, took him to Botswana and other places.

He said that there was a lot of opposition and the biggest opposition came from a French company called Lafarge.

He said that Dangote built his cement plant in Senegal but just after it was commissioned Lafarge claimed that the land belonged to them. They sued Dangote and the case was in court for 2 years. Dangote won the case, but Lafarge continued to create problems for him until Dangote paid them millions of dollars to make the problem go away.

Obasanjo said that today Dangote is the biggest cement manufacturer in Africa while Lafarge is no longer in Africa.

He said that Dangote embarrassed him a few weeks ago. He invited him to his refinery in Lekki and told all the staff to come out. He told them to thank President Obasanjo for their jobs because it was Obasanjo that pushed him to start manufacturing cement and without the cement factories he wouldn't have had the confidence to establish the refinery and they wouldn't have had their present jobs. All the staff began thanking Obasanjo.

President Obasanjo said that Dangote was his boss (Dangote had earlier said that Obasanjo calls him, "My boss", but it's not true and he is not Obasanjo's boss). He said that, "I made policies, but my policies would have failed if not for Dangote and others like Wale (Wale please stand up) and others that took advantage of them". (He was referring to Wale Tinubu). He therefore said, "Dangote, you are my boss and you will always be my boss".