Patience Jonathan: I Prayed When Buhari Refused To Approve $1bn Refinery In Bayelsa State

Nigeria’s former First Lady, Patience Jonathan has revealed how he nurtured the Group President of Azikel Group, Dr Azibapu Eruani, to become one of the prominent businessmen in the country, saying she always payed for him.

Mrs Jonathan spoke recently during the  commissioning of a $1 billion petrochemical refinery built by the company,  in Bayelsa state one of  Nigeria’s oil bearing state, making it one of the biggest players in the oil and gas sector of the economy with three refineries in its kitty.

While commissioning the refinery the former wife of ex-President Goodluck Jonathan said the journey was not an easy one, saying she always counseled Eruani not to give up his dream of  joining the club of big businessmen in the country, such as Aliko Dangote,  Aminu Dantata who are major players in  the nation’s economy.

Africa’s Richest Man Aliko Dangote, the magazine reports has built Africa’s biggest Refinery in Lagos worth over $20 billion and has recently extended his tentacles to Kenya where he’s planning to set up a multi-billion dollar petrochemical refinery.

Eruani appears not to have the war chest of Dangote but Mrs Jonathan said she has been nurturing him since he was a ‘boy” to aspire big like other business mogul like Dangote.

According to her, she introduced Eruani to the two businessmen by making sure he “followed Dangote and Dantata” and also encourage him when he faced the hurdles of getting the federal government license to set up the refinery.

She said she “prayed’ for him when the Muhammadu Buhari administration was initially reluctant in granting the license.1

“He’s a boy that I brought up. We are always together. Although he’s the little one among us when we are friends — Dangote, Seyi, Dantata, Eruani — among us, he’s the smallest. But I made sure he followed the Dangotes, he followed Dantata.

“Because I’m a woman in their midst, I made sure I told this small boy, ‘Go and follow them, and stop the grammar.’ But when he told me that one day he would be like Dangote, I said, ‘You’re thinking too high.’ I prayed to God to grant him his heart’s desire,” she saidGroup President of Azikel Group, Dr Azibapu Eruani.

“During the Buhari administration, he and others came to me and told me they were going to apply for a refinery. I told him, ‘Eruani, your brother, the President, did not give you a refinery.

“Is it the APC government that will give you one?’ I prayed it would happen. But later, they came back and told me they had been given three refineries,” Mrs Jonathan said.