NGO Allegedly Offers Nigerian Journalist N800,000 to Discredit Dangote Refinery
The conspiracy surrounding the $20 billion Dangote Refinery intensified on Saturday when Nigerian investigative journalist David Hundeyin accused an international non-governmental organization, ‘Dialogue Earth,’ of offering him an N800,000 bribe to undermine the 650,000 barrels-per-day petrochemical plant.
This accusation comes amid claims by the management of the Dangote Refinery that international oil companies (IOCs) are working against its success. Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, previously expressed frustration over what he perceives as efforts to sabotage the refinery due to challenges in securing local crude sources.
In a post on his X account, Hundeyin detailed his experience, stating that the NGO contacted him last week with a brief to write a negative review of the Dangote Refinery, citing climate change and environmental concerns as justifications. The NGO, formerly known as China Dialogue Trust, is based in London and headed by Oxford professor Sam Geall. Hundeyin alleged that several American intelligence fronts, such as the Ford Foundation and ClimateWorks—blacklisted in India for funding organizations working against India’s national interest—finance the NGO.
Hundeyin wrote, “Last week, I received an N800,000 offer from an international NGO called Dialogue Earth (formerly known as China Dialogue Trust), to write an article, essentially saying that Dangote Refinery is terrible for the environment because something something ‘Environmental Concerns,’ something something ‘Climate Change,’ something something ‘Energy Transition Policy,’ something something ‘COP 28’.”
The journalist further claimed that he suspected the NGO’s intentions from the initial contact but played along to gather concrete evidence. “The (unstated but clearly implied) thrust of the brief was for a prominent local voice to put their name on an article that is an argument or a premise for the Nigerian government to kill the refinery based on its ‘energy transition commitments’ and ‘environmental policy.’ This conclusion wasn’t immediately apparent when they reached out to me, but I suspected where it was heading and quickly accepted the offer so that I could see the brief and obtain hard evidence. I’ve attached screenshots from the brief below,” he stated.
The multi-billion dollar Dangote Refinery is envisioned as Nigeria’s beacon of energy independence, with the potential to reduce West Africa’s dependence on imported fuel and improve fuel quality control. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in its June 2024 Oil Market Report, highlighted the significant impact the Dangote Refinery is expected to have on Europe’s oil and gas market. OPEC listed the refinery as a key supplier of diesel and jet fuel that could disrupt Europe’s energy industry, particularly the Northwest Europe (NWE) gasoil sector, boosting the Nigerian economy.
Hundeyin emphasized that the NGO’s implied, though unstated, objective is part of a global campaign to undermine what they describe as “Africa’s first working refinery.” The goal is to create a pretext for the Nigerian government to potentially shut down or restrict the refinery’s operations, citing “energy transition commitments” and “environmental policy.”
Hundeyin decided to expose the plot to support the argument that some American and European state and private interests are heavily invested in sabotaging efforts to liberate the African continent from poverty. “I’m putting this out there publicly so that nobody will henceforth use the term ‘conspiracy theory’ when it is pointed out for the umpteenth time, that there are American and European state and private interests that are heavily invested in keeping Africa exactly as poor as it is and that they regularly push levers most of us do not even know exist, to make sure that this status quo is protected.
“These people believe that Africans should not exist, or have nice things in this world. Apparently, the sole purpose of our existence is to enhance their experience of the planet and all that it has to offer.
“Basically, this London-based NGO is headed by Sam Geall, an Oxford professor and is funded by several American intelligence fronts such as the Ford Foundation and ClimateWorks (which is blacklisted in India for funding organizations working against India’s national interest).
“For whatever reason, it is now quietly mobilizing a resistance campaign against what it describes as ‘Nigeria’s first refinery.’
“Apparently, the status quo of Africa’s largest oil producer having no functioning oil refinery to beneficiate its oil was not a problem for Dialogue Earth and the American CIA fronts who fund it,” Hundeyin alleged.
