Angry, antagonistic debtors may be hitting their heads against the wall, circling and waiting to swoop on Wale Tinubu, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Oando Plc over his company’s multi-million dollar indebtedness, but the former billionaire oilman is not losing any sleep.
In fact, more than ever before, he seems to be on a roll and has remained his bubbly self. Indeed, nothing has changed in his lavish lifestyle of vintage bubbly and expensive cognacs, flying his private jet or sailing on blue territorial waters in luxury yachts with friends and family.
Since he came into oil billions, Tinubu’s lifestyle and its accoutrements has to be sustained even if the heavens are falling. Perhaps it is all he needs to relax and restock psychologically. On the business side, sources say he has delved heavily into property with the recent building a high-rise building on Walter Carrington Crescent, and another two of such on Ozumba Mbadiwe Street, both in Victoria Island, Lagos. The lawyer turned oil mogul also has a massive piece of land in Ikoyi Waterfront which no one is yet certain what he intends to build there.
These acquisitions are coming at a time when a posse of Oando’s shareholders is making life difficult for Tinubu. Bought by Oando in 2012 for $1.5 billion, ConocoPhilips’ assets in Nigeria are now causing the company serious headache. Several of the financiers that lent money to Oando to finance the purchase have concerns over the way the company is being run.
These investors include leading names in the Nigerian economy like Gabriele Volpi, the multi-billionaire founder of the lucrative oil logistics firm Intels/Orlean Invest, which enjoys a near monopoly in the Niger Delta region as operators of the oil and gas logistics terminals in Onne, Rivers State and Warri, Delta State, as well as in Angola and Mozambique; Alhaji Dahiru Mangal, a close friend of Tanimu Yakubu, former economic advisor to late President Umaru Yar’Adua and who has been on the board of Oando since 2015; and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Accordingly, Volpi’s Ansbury Investments Inc., a firm with extensive interests in oil and gas, ports logistic services and real estate spanning 40 years, has written a petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking to stop Oando from holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) slated to take place in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State on September 11. Volpi, who holds dual Italian and Nigerian citizenship, is also pushing for the removal of Tinubu and his deputy, Mofe Boyo, over their inability to repay the loan.
