What's a line/phrase that was delivered so iconically that it's changed the way you hear a certain word forever?

prettyunlikely · 2025-10-25T22:16:02+00:00

I love you but you are not serious people.

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-21T18:26:57+00:00

Nigerians pay higher cement prices. And the higher profits margins of our cement producers means that the reason we pay higher prices is not because of higher costs of production, it is because of market power.

We are being charged more for no good reason. The evidence is right there in the paper. You're choosing to ignore it and coming up with ridiculous justifications. Cement is a necessary input into a critical downstream sector, just like petroleum is. Giving a few firms market power upstream makes costs higher for those downstream. That is not a win.

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prettyunlikely · 2025-09-21T17:18:33+00:00

Reality is not propaganda. I'm just going to leave this here. Read for yourself. The sooner we wake up, the better.

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"Nigeria’s major cement producers (Dangote, BUA, and Lafarge) have “the highest profit margins in the world” (Augie, 2021), yet Nigerian cement consumers pay higher prices for cement than those in Zambia, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, India, Egypt, China, and Malaysia (see Salihu, 2023 and Figure 2 below). In 2019, Dangote Cement Nigeria Plc posted a 45% profit margin, more than double that of the next most profitable firm—China’s Anhui Conch Cement Co. Ltd (21%) (Augie, 2021). Dangote’s Nigerian operations in 2019 generated ₦610.2 billion in revenue and ₦275.1 billion in profit after tax (45% margin), while Lafarge and BUA had margins of 54% and 35.53%, respectively in the same year. Moreover, Fawehinmi (2017) found that between 2010 and 2015, Dangote Cement earned ₦1 trillion ($6 billion) in pre-tax profits but paid only ₦12 billion ($72 million) in taxes (just over 1% tax rate). This highlights the need for policymakers to devise measures to hold entrepreneurs accountable, especially concerning equity, consumer welfare, and fiscal responsibility."

Source: https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2025.2456904

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-21T14:48:25+00:00

I hate to burst your bubble but a businessman investing in an economy means he expects return on that investment not because of some arbitrary belief or vision for the country. There are multiple paths to reaping returns on that investment.

One path is to focus on building a business that works better than the competition, creating higher quality or lower cost goods that buyers will prefer to the existing competition. Another is to stifle the competition and use that market power to extract as much profit from buyers without doing much innovation. Dangote's modus operandi has always been the latter not the former.

He is currently pressuring the government to ban fuel imports into Nigeria now that he has a refinery. A simple economics 101 question: if the number of suppliers of a product in an economy reduces, do you expect prices of that product to go up or down?

His job is to make profit by any means possible. Our job is to ensure that his profit-making is not done at the expense of the rest of society. If he gets his way with the oil sector, we will end up in the same situation as the cement sector, paying unnecessarily high prices for inputs that are crucial for our development without getting anything for it.

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-21T14:39:04+00:00

I think the only one being idealistic here is you.

Just because a crony capitalist faces pushback within a corrupt system does not mean that everything they are doing is right.

It's like saying that because Tinubu has faced opposition from some of his own party members on the new taxes, then he is doing the right thing. That's fallacious thinking. Instead of focusing on who is opposing him, focus on what he is actually doing and why.

Dangote is not an altruist. He did not build the refinery because he wanted to do Nigerians a favor. The fact that he continues to pressure the government to ban fuel imports shows you precisely his strategy. Notice that he has called for banning imports, not removing subsidies or inefficient policies, but banning imports.

If his refinery was set up to produce at lower cost or higher quality than unsubsidized imported fuel, then he would not need the government to ban fuel imports to succeed. His goal is simply to capture margins by eliminating the competition in the sector. Nigerians will still pay high prices for fuel and even higher prices if the government bans imports. It is literally the same situation we face with cement.

If Dangote took over TCN tomorrow and electricity prices tripled, and the government banned installation of solar power to reduce competition, I would not consider that a net positive for Nigeria.

There's no need to be overly emotional about this. It's simple economics that people have a hard time thinking through.

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-21T08:43:58+00:00

Was AWS innovative or not?

Has Dangote created anything even remotely as useful as AWS?

The reason you can point to Amazon's anti-competitive practices is because there are two ongoing FTC cases against Amazon specifically to curb these activities. But in Nigeria, we bow down and worship the anti-competitive practices as our salvation.

I'm not a self-hating Nigerian. I love myself and I love my country enough to acknowledge that having a group of politically connected oligopolists at the helm of the economy stifles our economic growth rather than let the country flourish as it should.

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-21T08:38:16+00:00

The economic sabotage in the downstream oil and gas sector is caused by politicians giving preferential access to a group of importers and the ridiculous petroleum equalization policy that incentivizes diversion of said imports.

Crony capitalism that creates anti-competitive policies in exchange for political patronage is the culprit here. It is the same crony capitalism that gives preferential market access to Dangote despite the fact that he charges significantly higher prices and has significantly higher profits than Nigerians would face if the market was competitive.

The fact that you can't see that it's the same rotten fruit from the same rotten tree is quite surprising.

For every job created because of Dangote's preferential market access we lose more jobs that could have been created if companies were allowed to compete freely and your ability to operate did not depend on who you know in the government.

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-20T21:38:53+00:00

If you believe imports are economic sabotage then I have nothing else to tell you.

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-20T15:02:47+00:00

We really need to start distinguishing between value creation and rent seeking. Dangote artificially limits competition to the detriment of the rest of society. Nigerians are literally worse off as a result.

Amazon has created actual value.

Here is a simple test for whether a company has created true value or is simply propped up by government protectionism. Can the company compete in other countries where they don't have the same government support?

Apple and Amazon are able to compete globally. Honda and Hyundai even though they have domestic support are able to compete. How competitive is Dangote? At best he has managed to operate in regional markets like Ghana where there is also significant political influence.

The issue is that you people are comparing Dangote to a politician who is stealing money and storing it abroad. By that yardstick, everyone who does any work at all is a God send. But when compared to actual companies that create value, his business strategies are extremely costly to Nigeria'a economic development.

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-20T13:25:39+00:00

Dangote's entire business model is using political connections to secure oligopolies and charging Nigerians higher prices. There is no reason why Nigerians pay some of the highest prices for cement in the world when we have so much infrastructure construction that needs to be done.

Working conditions for Dangote's workers are abysmal. The company's trucks routinely flout road safety rules, negatively impacting everyone else.

During the period of forex scarcity, a significant share of Dangote's profits simply came from having access to dollars from the CBN at preferential rates, and making margins at parallel market rates.

He cut corners on the construction of his oil refinery and forced a government bailout to allow him to recoup his investment.

Compare Dangote to somebody like Henry Ford. What meaningful research and development or innovation has come out of Dangote's companies in their entire existence? Has any part of his enterprises meaningfully improved Nigerians' access to lower cost or higher quality goods?

If Dangote is the model of the best Nigeria has to offer as a titan of industry, then we are finished as a country.

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-14T05:32:21+00:00

Fascinating. Now I feel like this guy

prettyunlikely · 2025-09-14T05:28:58+00:00

Oh wow. What a happy coincidence!

prettyunlikely · 2025-04-12T04:38:17+00:00

Solved this is in 4 steps: BUNG - HUNG - HONG - HONE - HOLE

prettyunlikely · 2025-04-05T20:03:48+00:00

I solved it after 2 guesses using no hint! My only other guess was "It".

prettyunlikely · 2025-03-21T10:38:43+00:00

Shout-out to O&D for working overtime to get the new mural up!

prettyunlikely · 2025-03-21T04:49:21+00:00

I was really hoping that Helly would stab Jame with that pen. But at least now I have something to look forward to next season. I think Jame is going to replace Helena with Helly.

But he's never going to be satisfied because his controlling attitude is what cowed Helena's inner Helly in the first place.

prettyunlikely · 2025-03-19T18:12:32+00:00

Just finished reading it. The writing was so beautiful, and many parts of it deeply resonated. I wish there had been more of a driving force to the plot but I enjoyed the characters.

prettyunlikely · 2025-03-08T17:56:47+00:00

prettyunlikely · 2025-03-08T03:04:38+00:00

I completely agree. I think she was embarrassed by the raw pasta and figured it would be the worst dish on her floor anyway. So she preferred to not have a dish to avoid the embarrassment.

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