It’s no longer news. Aliko Dangote, the billionaire entrepreneur and Africa’s richest man has many mansions spread across the country and in no fewer than 14 African nations. But these are not mansions of pleasure. They are mansions of production and productivity. They are mansions serving as production and wealth-creation outposts. They are mills providing meal tickets for millions of families.

They are not mansions of grandiose opulence bearing all the insignia of vainglory. Never! They are mansions of value, not vanity. These mansions are mills, factories, corporate offices, trading outposts, depots, warehouses, etcetera. They are everywhere, serving different purposes. These mansions are the operation hubs for his multi-dimensional businesses, from cement manufacturing, sugar refining, salt refining, packaging, fertiliser production, oil refinery, logistics, maritime, locomotive, infrastructure, rice farming, among other enterprises. A good 15 subsidiaries under one group driven by one man.

Dangote is the richest Black person in the world. With a 2024 valuation of $13.2 billion, he towers over all the billionaires in Africa. Yet, he remains reticent, simple and humble. Neither showy nor ostentatiously effervescent. He makes himself available; shares table with commoners and is ever willing to listen. While some Nigerians endowed with little cash stomp the streets and social media space in their designers and lavish frolics, Dangote stays quiet, strategising on how to expand his business estate, grow productivity to create more jobs and more wealth for society. A man of sacrifice.  And you just wonder why someone could choose work over pleasure even when he can easily afford the best of pleasures life can give. Even her daughter, Lady Fatima Aliko Dangote, the Group Executive Director Commercial Operations at Dangote Industries Limited, wonders too. She wonders why her dad would prefer to walk the path of pain for the benefit of society to the detriment of his personal pleasure. She wonders why her dad could be a subject of corporate blackmail and rabid media attacks despite his unrelenting sacrifices to build a prosperous Africa. But Dangote does not deserve blackmail in whatever guise. He does not deserve state bullying either. He and his likes, genuine entrepreneurs who think and toil to create wealth for others to live well, deserve protection. The same way America protected the owners of Ford, Walmart, Comcast, Berkshire Hathaway, Microsoft, among many other multinationals which were once mere startups is the way Nigeria at all times should protect and patronise Dangote and other members of the local production club. They are Angel entrepreneurs who absorb the shocks for the sake of Nigeria and Nigerians.

In recent months, there has been a traction in media pelts at Dangote. From an anti-corruption agency raiding his office and making a public show of it to sponsored articles in the media labelling his globally acknowledged gigantic project, the 650,000 barrels per day refining capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals a hoax. Nothing can be more ludicrous than this. To ever imagine or infer that such mega project is a white elephant adventure must be the product of a prejudice-suffused mind or the reasoning of a drug-addled brain. Either case, the purveyors of such monstrous fib deserve a bed space at the nearest psychiatry.

But the refinery is no fluke. It’s a special project of a special African son, the unicorn of the modern era. Dangote is special and deserves our collective respect in Nigeria and Africa at large. Mr. Tony Chiejina, Group Head Corporate Communications at Dangote Industries, describes Dangote as a man endowed with ‘futuristic spirit wrapped in divine guidance.’ Indeed, Dangote is both futuristic in his vision and he’s guided by a divine compass. Just imagine this: Out of the fecund mind of one man comes a conglomerate with 15 thriving subsidiaries spanning fertiliser, petrochemical, agriculture, cement, sugar, logistics, maritime, cement, etcetera, each providing direct and indirect jobs to thousands of Nigerians and Africans. Dangote is a rare breed. In an import dependent country where everything including toothpick is imported, Dangote believes and promotes local manufacture. He understands basic economics of import and export. He believes that importing finished products is akin to importing poverty and exporting jobs because the importing nation only helps to build the economy of the exporting nation and therefore creating more jobs there while creating oasis of unemployment at home. This is what Nigeria has been doing and it has hurt the economy badly.

Truly, Dangote has many mansions. A recent visit and tour of the Dangote Free Zone in Lekki, Lagos, housing the fertiliser plant and the refinery proved this. The refinery alone is a city inside a city. A city of many mansions, a city of productivity, not of pleasure. Dangote refinery is a curious mix of man, machine and science. It’s where science and man interface; a melting point of the complexities of technology and a triumph of the dexterity of mortal man to convert an earth-borne mineral called crude oil into petrol, kerosene, aviation jet, diesel and other by-products across the value chain for the benefit of humankind. The refinery complex is not just a constellation of infrastructure and an assemblage of skilled-up men and women, with over 90 percent of them Nigerians, it’s a continental counterpoise to the global mockery refrain, can any good thing come out from Africa, the dark continent? Yes, good things can come and have come out of Africa. The Dangote refinery sits pretty at the cusp of those good things. And to see young Nigerians confidently manning the laboratories and diverse operations in the jaw-dropping and intensely intricate production activities inspires hope of a better tomorrow for the country.

To have a fairly good idea of the vastness of the refinery project, the land space and the money spent on its development, the land area is equivalent to the size of 1,235 football fields from where petrol, kerosene, aviation jet, diesel and other by-products across the value chain are being produced. The refinery flaunts certain unique badges; the largest in Africa, rated the world’ largest single train refinery as well as the largest Residual Fluid Catalytical Cracking (RFCC) facility among other features. A mega project that has gulped mega bucks, all on the head of one man. Yet, this same Dangote with all his wealth has no single house outside Nigeria. Except for his houses in Lagos and Kano, his home state, he has no other architectural signature of opulence (which is what houses of billionaires are). He still lives in a rented house in Abuja. Imagine that!

Dangote is a gift to humanity. From his always open hands, water has gushed forth for the thirsty; the hungry have been fed in their millions; jobs, wealth and entrepreneurship through the value chains of all his endeavours have comforted multitudes of diverse tribes, tongues and religion.

And I wonder: Does Dangote sleep? Does he rest at all? The puff of grey hairs crowning his head speaks volumes of the high level of activities in the mind of this man who has chosen to be wealthy for the benefit of humanity than to be rich just for his family and a few friends. He deserves our collective prayers.

First published in Sunday Sun