19 Orisas nearly stopped building my Refinery, says Dangote
Praises Ooni’s intervention
By Samuel Ogunsona
A total of 19 strong Yoruba Orisas neary prevented the building of the multi-billion Naira Dangote Refinery located in Lekki, Lagos.
Billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote, made this known at the weekend.
He said everyone was afraid to go into the forest to confront the gods and the over 19 shrines and deities until the Ooni of Ife, His Royal Majesty, Oba Babatunde Ogunwusi, Ojaja 11 intervened and volunteered to confront the gods and the dreaded shrines.
Dangote expressed appreciation to the Ooni for his courage and spirituality in bringing the episode to a close openng up a rare opportinity to build Africa’s largest refinery.
He expressed his gratitude to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, for facilitating the establishment of his factories.
Dangote recalled that after acquiring the land for the Refinery, it was discovered that the site was hub to more than 19 shrines, which were determined to stop the building of the Refinery. He said fear gripped the promoters of the factory.
Dangote said “I think I must recognise and thank the Ooni of Ife for making us able to go in and build our factories. What happened was that when we got in there, there were over 19 shrines at the site, and nobody was able to even go near them to do anything.
Dangote said in the face of fear and trembling, the “Ooni went there, he went there personally, he stood right there and said, remove all of them, anything that they wanted, let the gods come and talk to me,” Dangote said.
Directing his speech to the Ooni he said “Your Royal Majesty, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, because without the simpler acts of yours, I don’t think we would have actually been able to do this, and it’s not a coincidence. So thank you very much.”
Dangote spoke at the Launching of the Foundation’s ₦100bn Annual Education Support Fund, which he described as the largest private-sector education intervention in Nigeria’s history.
The fund is expected to impact 1.3 million students in the next 10 years.
