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Nigerian investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, has accused an international Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Dialogue Earth, of offering him an 800 thousand naira bribe to smear the world's largest single-train refinery, Dangote Refinery.
In a lengthy post on his X account on Saturday, August 10, 2024, Hundeyin detailed how the NGO reached out to him sometime last week with a brief that required him to write a negative review about the Dangote Refinery using climate change and environmental concerns as justifications.
According to the controversial roundsman, Dialogue Earth, formerly known as China Dialogue Trust, is based in London, United Kingdom and headed by an Oxford professor Sam Geall.
He alleged that several American intelligence fronts such as Ford Foundation and ClimateWorks - which is blacklisted in India for funding organisations working against India's national interest - are financiers of the NGO.
"Last week, I received an N800,000 offer from an international NGO called Dialogue Earth (formerly known as China Dialogue Trust) to write an article essentially saying that Dangote Refinery is terrible for the environment because something something "Environmental Concerns," something something "Climate Change," something something "Energy Transition Policy," something something "COP 28," he said.
Hundeyin exposes foreign NGO
Though he claimed he could suspect the intention of the NGO after the initial contact, the investigative journalist played along to obtain hard evidence.
"The (unstated but clearly implied) thrust of the brief was for a prominent local voice to put their name on an article that is an argument or a premise for the Nigerian government to kill the refinery based on its "energy transition commitments" and "environmental policy."
"This conclusion wasn't immediately apparent when they reached out to me, but I suspected where it was heading, and I quickly accepted the offer so that I could see the brief and obtain hard evidence. I've attached screenshots from the brief below," he stated.
Hundeyin said he decided to expose the sordid plot to corroborate the argument that some American and European state and private interests are heavily invested in sabotaging the efforts to liberate the African continent from poverty.
"I'm putting this out there publicly so that nobody will henceforth use the term "conspiracy theory" when it is pointed out for the umpteenth time, that there are American and European state and private interests that are heavily invested in keeping Africa exactly as poor as it is, and that they regularly push levers most of us do not even know exist, to make sure that this status quo is protected.
"These people believe that Africans should not exist or have nice things in this world. Apparently, the sole purpose of our existence is to enhance their experience of the planet and all that it has to offer," he argued.
Dangote faces off with Nigerian oil sector regulators
The Dangote refinery has been in the in recent times following a face-off between the company and the Nigerian oil sector regulators.
Owner of the refinery and richest African, Aliko Dangote, accused International Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria of a deliberate effort to sabotage the 20 billion dollar facility by refusing to supply it with crude oil.
The billionaire also fingered the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited in an alleged scheme aimed at frustrating the refinery from getting on track.
Last month, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) claimed that Dangote refinery was yet to be licensed to sell refined petroleum products, adding that the diesel churned out at the facility is of low quality.
In response, Dangote accused some government officials and regulators of owning stakes in refining plants in Malta and a few other countries thus hell-bent on frustrating the local refineries to function.