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Dahiru Mangal: Smuggling Kingpin Whose Activities Killed Nigerian Textile Industry Gets Buhari’s National Honour
Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, known as DMB, is the owner of Max Airline, one of Nigeria’s aviation giants, and Afdin Petroleum.
He was among the over 400 Nigerians and foreigners that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari conferred the country’s prestigious national honours.
When DBM stepped out on Tuesday, October 11, 2022, to receive his national award, those who with the knowledge of his real business, outside the aviation and oil and gas, felt the president was rewarding a man who killed a vibrant sector of the country’s economy−the textile industry in Northern Nigeria.
Mangal, whose smuggling activities were well detailed in a book titled, ”The Looting Machine” by Tom Burgis, an investigative journalist at Financial Times, was conferred with the honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).
Rewarding Mangal, a smuggling kingpin by the President with CON, has confounded many Nigerians who believed that the administration’s war against corruption−though never taken seriously by critically minded observers− has become a mockery.
Many believed DBM is a shrewd businessman because he knows how to make money−whether legitimate or not. With little formal education, he has remained friends of presidents, governors, and politicians, as according to those in the know, he funds many political campaigns and installs governors.
Though he inherited the importation of goods from his father, Mangal had chosen cross-border freights for his quick access to wealth.
Burgis had, in his book published in 2015, detailed how former textile workers became helpless after contraband from China, smuggled by Mangal, believed to be one of the eminent West Africa smugglers, had brought the textile industry to its knees.
The British journalist said, “ In the shadier corners of the workshop of the world, Mangal found the perfect business partners.”
He was the conduit between Chinese manufacturers, who copied Nigerian wax and labelled them Made in Nigeria, and distributors.
According to the book, the Nigerian Government had repeatedly promised to bail out the industry, yet little assistance had been forthcoming. The more clear-eyed textile workers at the time realised that, in any case, the game was up.
“With over 600 fleets of trucks involved in moving contraband goods into the country through Niger and Chad, Mangal never admitted he was into smuggling.”
According to the book, he told Nasir el-Rufai, whom Olusegun Obasanjo, the former Nigerian President, had dispatched to talk to him about the need to change his line of business to something legitimate.
“Obasanjo was told, according to a consultant who was involved in lobbying the president, that Mangal was ‘the’ kingpin’,” Burgis wrote.
“Obasanjo dispatched Nasir El-Rufai, a northern-born minister with a reputation as a reformer, to try to get Mangal to clean up his act. El-Rufai told me he reached an agreement with Yar’Adua, the beneficiary of Mangal’s generous campaign funding and his political protector. The smuggler would endeavour to transform himself into a legitimate businessman.”
“El-Rufai recalled that Mangal asked him, “Why does Obasanjo call me a smuggler? I just do logistics. I don’t buy any of the goods that are smuggled. I’m just providing a service.’ Mangal told El-Rufai that he had a fleet of six hundred trucks plying the trade routes.”
“He promised to switch into refined petroleum products, another time-honoured money spinner for Nigeria’s politically connected trading barons. But the illicit textile trade continued, and Mangal’s operations remained under scrutiny.”
DMB was and is still managing a shadow economy that includes authorities and his political elites. Many observers wonder why President Buhari, who prides himself as a man of integrity, would dole out the covetous National Honour to a man who has done more damage to the country than good.
Featured
Alake Inaugurates Nigeria-US Solid Minerals Committee, Dismisses $700bn Claim, Says No Assets Sold
Joel Ajayi
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, on Tuesday inaugurated the Nigeria-United States Committee on Strategic Cooperation in the Solid Minerals Sector in Abuja, dismissing reports that Nigeria sold $700 billion worth of solid minerals to the US.
The inauguration followed the strategic cooperation framework established between Nigeria and the United States during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Head PRESS and Public Relations Department Mrs. Kania Maliki Andeyaba stated that, Alake in the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the US is a government-to-government platform to facilitate business-to-business engagements between American investors and Nigerian local operators, not a sale of assets.
Harping on the importance of the solid minerals sector to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda, he noted that the administration was committed to reducing dependence on a mono-product economy through the sustainable development of Nigeria’s vast mineral resources.
According to him, the Nigeria–US partnership as a strategic initiative to attract investment, promote technology transfer, strengthen local mineral processing and create employment opportunities.
“There is no sale of any Nigerian asset. There’s nothing exchanging hands,” Alake declared.
“We created a platform to facilitate mingling of US investment ventures with Nigeria’s local operators. It is in the public domain. We signed it in public and published it in four or five national newspapers.”
The Minister said reports claiming the US was coming to take over Nigeria’s minerals and security architecture were untrue at best and products of riotous imagination at worst.
Explaining the policy thrust, Alake said Africa has historically held the short end of the stick in global economic transactions, and Nigeria is determined to change that model.
“We have the resources, the critical elements the world needs to transit to clean energy. So we are creating a new paradigm — you bring your capital, expertise and technology, to match with our natural resources and create a win-win situation . The investor gains, Nigeria gains.’’he said.
Nigeria, he stressed, had operated a mono-cultural economy dependent on oil, while solid minerals were exploited informally — with ores taken “from pit to port” without value addition.
Alake said government has now made local processing mandatory, refusing to grant mineral titles to investors without a clear pathway to processing in Nigeria.
He said the policy led to the springing up of processing factories, including the largest lithium processing plant in West Africa commissioned recently in Nasarawa by the Vice President, and informed the formation of the African Minerals Strategy Group.
Alake noted that investor confidence has returned due to macro-economic reforms by President Bola Tinubu that guarantee security of tenure and repatriation of profits.
He charged the committee to discharge its assignment responsibly, saying its work is strategic to achieving the President’s $1 trillion economy target.
To this end, he told the Committee to ensure effective coordination, identify investment opportunities and translate the framework into measurable outcomes capable of positioning Nigeria as a competitive player in the global solid minerals industry.
In his welcome address, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo, said the inauguration translates growing bilateral engagements into a structured framework for practical cooperation and investment mobilization
Economic Officer at the US Embassy, Jonathan Baas, said President Donald Trump has prioritized three areas for US embassies — energy, artificial intelligence/super intelligence, and critical minerals.
Baas said Washington’s direction is to work with partners to secure critical supply chains while ensuring partners capture value.
“We just signed a contract today on looking into building AI data centres in Nigeria at the Nigerian Economic Summit. That’s the direction Washington wants us to go,” he said.
In his vote of thanks, CEO/Managing Director of Nigeria Solid Minerals Company, NSMC said that the committee
is expected to coordinate implementation, facilitate investment and monitor progress towards achieving the objectives of the Nigeria–US cooperation framework.
The inauguration reinforces the Federal Government’s commitment to repositioning the solid minerals sector as a key driver of economic diversification, industrial development and national prosperity under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
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