Billionaire businessman and oil magnate Femi Otedola has revealed a dramatic midnight confrontation with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in his forthcoming memoir, Making It Big: Lessons from a Life in Business, set to be released on August 18, 2025.
In a gripping excerpt, Otedola recounts how his push for diesel deregulation in 2004—an effort to break the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) monopoly—led to a fiery backlash from the presidency. Following reports of diesel scarcity across the country, Obasanjo allegedly called Otedola at 2AM, shouting: “You’re a stupid boy! God will punish you! You persuaded me to deregulate diesel, and now there’s no diesel in the country!”
Otedola, then CEO of Zenon Petroleum, had assured the president that the private sector could meet national demand without NNPC’s involvement. The deregulation made diesel the first petroleum product in Nigeria to be fully subsidy-free, a move hailed by reformists but fiercely opposed by entrenched interests.
The memoir details how misinformation—allegedly spread by NNPC insiders and competitors—fueled Obasanjo’s anger. Otedola flew to Abuja the next day to confront the president face-to-face.
“I allowed him to cool down,” Otedola writes. “Then I explained: ‘Baba, they’re lying to you. I have six ships waiting to discharge big supplies of diesel.’”
To counter the disinformation, Otedola proposed publishing diesel availability and pricing on the front pages of national newspapers. He claims this helped stabilize the market and restore presidential confidence.