Africa’s richest, Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote’s name has been making the rounds with the claims that he will be in the running for 2019 presidency. Think-tank program, created by former President Goodluck Jonathan, ‘supposedly’ contacted Dangote to be PDP’s presidential torch bearer come 2019.
Without mincing words, Aliko Dangote made it crystal clear that he has no interests at all in running for presidency. He denied all claims of being met by members of the think-tank committee and warned people to stop dropping his name for the 2019 presidency.
Rather than 2019 presidency, other things are fore front on the entrepreneur’s to-do list. Aliko Dangote made it clear that his passion lies not in politics but in business development and job and wealth creation. There are no doubts as to whether he has managed to live out his passion as it is evident given his net worth, the vast businesses in his name, and the number of people under his employ.
At the moment Aliko Dangote has channeled his time, resources and passion towards the on-going Dangote refinery in Lagos and the sugar projects. These projects promise to create thousands of job opportunities for the youth of this nation and that will (in his words) “change the narrative in the country”.
Name droppers have been severely warned by the man himself to stop dropping Aliko Dangote’s name. He referred to the act of name dropping as ‘infamous’ and pleaded that they leave his name out of it. He is also sure that this could all end up putting him in collision course with the current president, President Buhari and the government in power.
Adamant on his stand regarding this matter, Dangote claims that people who are jealous of his success are the ones responsible for this name dropping stunt; their end goal being to put bad blood between himself and President Buhari who according to Dangote is like a father to him. These were his words to Daily Times in an interview with them.
“This whole thing is an attempt by people who do not like me. They are doing all these with a view to putting me on a collision course with President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling party. They are people who are jealous of the successes I have so far recorded. My passion is for business development, provision of jobs and wealth creation, not politics. I have never shown interest in politics. I am not interested in politics. I am not a politician. My passion has always been business and business”.
Time will tell if Aliko Dangote will be true to his words or will at a later date be persuaded to change course. In the meanwhile, it is business as usual for the business mogul.