The Nation Newspaper

Category: Sanya Oni

Still on the tax laws matter

From all indications, the last has not been heard on the alleged alteration of the tax laws. By this I do not mean its status in the books given that the law is already fully operative. Rather, I refer to the latest wave of offensive to shred it of any iota of legitimacy by a self-proclaimed Ad-hoc Committee on Tax Laws put up by a minority caucus in the National Assembly, led by Afam Ogene, the individual who represents Ogbaru Federal Constituency of Anambra State in the National Assembly.

Even for those who choose to see politics as the art of the possible, the latest intervention, far from being the typical legislative petulance speaks to something graver –more like a dangerous play in deliberate, institutional subversion.

Two weeks ago on this page, I had raised the poser – what next – in the background of the still strident opposition to the tax laws. Talk of legislations, which in their draft form, had survived a well-laid ambush by the National Economic Council (NEC) – a body of 36 governors chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima. They also survived the ferocious tackles by regional hegemons and their allies of various hues, and then the legion of opponents for whom every initiative by the Bola Tinubu administration, no matter how well meaning, must be shot down. And then the laws – four of them in all – waded through the legislative mill to emerge – again against the run of play so to speak – as the most consequential pieces of legislations under the current dispensation. And that is discounting the sustained campaign of misinformation launched against it by vested interests, all in the bid to render it toxic.

Just like the saying of the old Volkswagen Beetle advert, there appears to be no killing this particular Bettle!

Still, those expecting the losers in the earlier plot to truncate its implementation to keep their peace and thus allow the law to run seamlessly have proven to be grossly mistaken. Forget the well-timed intervention by the leaderships of the National Assembly; this has failed to douse the fires of their artfully crafted mischief. And so they move on.

Remember the initial dusts thrown up by a member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsamad Dasuki alleging discrepancies between the versions of the tax laws passed by the National Assembly and those circulated to the public. Most Nigerians would have ordinarily considered the allegations unsettling were it not for the needless drama that attended to it and the palpable bad faith by the sponsors. More than a month after the setting up of a seven-man committee composed of Muktar Aliyu Betara, former Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Idris Wase, Sada Soli, James Abiodun Faleke, Fred Agbedi, Babajimi Benson and Iduma Igariwey by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas to examine the issues; there are no indications of the muddying ending anytime soon.

And just when one imagines that the findings of the committee are being prepped for plenary, a so-called Ad-hoc Committee on Tax Laws, perhaps unknown to the National Assembly as a body, said to have been set up by the minority caucus led by Afam Ogene, would emerge from the shadows to take things up from where their colleague – Dasuki stopped, throwing muck around. Needless to state that his committee all but confirmed the group’s hare-brained hypothesis that discrepancies indeed existed between the versions of the tax reform Acts passed. More specifically, the committee alleged that reporting thresholds were lowered, that mandatory deposits were introduced as conditions for tax appeals, and that enforcement powers were expanded to include arrest and the disposal of seized assets without court orders. It also alleged changes to the National Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, including the removal of provisions that guarantee the National Assembly’s oversight powers.

By the way, it didn’t help that Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen and Senate President Godswill Akpabio took the wind from their sail with the public release of the certified true copies of the laws. That changed nothing or could it? In any case, it seems unlikely that anything – short of keeping the law in perpetual abeyance – could mollify or appease those for whom the texts of the laws, being so patently embossed in satanic calligraphy, could have been anything but good!

Now that the project to make the laws inoperable if not to put the integrity of the entire architecture of governance into peril by any means fair or foul, has since moved into an entirely new chapter, not only are citizens forced to relearn the distinction between good and bad faith, but questions about their next move have become inevitable.

By the way, it helps that the so-called minority caucus recognises that the work of the Muktar Betara-led bipartisan committee is still on-going. This of course begs the question of why the minority committee couldn’t wait to see the process through before jumping the gun. Was it a case of not trusting his colleagues to do a thorough job?

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Surely, if the world took interest in the establishment of the Betara committee given the uproar that the allegations generated at the time, the same could not be said of the secret committee of the minority caucus, which from all appearances, seem designed to undermine the work of the former. Little wonder they could not afford the luxury of taking their colleagues into confidence before inundating the media space with what could only have been a hatchet job. Now that that they have made their presentations in television studios in what is at best an exercise in showmanship, Nigerians wait to see how what impact it would make on the proceedings in the house.

Fortunately, the house through its spokesman, Akin Rotimi has responded with a tutorial: “The House recognises the legitimate role of the minority caucus within parliamentary democracy and affirms its right to express dissenting opinions, engage in policy advocacy, and raise public concerns.

“However, it is necessary to distinguish clearly between political activities and the formal parliamentary processes of the House.

“The Standing Orders of the House (Eleventh Edition) vest the power to constitute ad hoc committees solely in the House acting in plenary or in the Speaker exercising powers conferred under the Standing Orders”.

Well spoken – I dare say!

But then that is merely the preliminary. Considering that the parliamentary privileges of the members appear to have been breached, the next step should be a call for full accounting for the delinquency.

I rise!!!

January 27, 2026
Rivers’ anomie season 2.0

Given how quickly the different actors in the Rivers’ political divide have gone back into the trenches, it is obvious that no lessons have been learnt either in the simple understanding of politics as art of the possible, not to talk of the body of organising rules on which the superstructure of governance is grounded and which the feuding parties are supposedly sworn to perform their duties. For if the period between March 18, 2025, when President Bola Tinubu clamped emergency rule on the state and September 17, 2025 when he rolled back the emergency, was supposed to afford the combatants sufficient window for introspection, what ought to be obvious now is how pretty little has changed in any sense. In fact, take out the restraining hand of President Tinubu, the state would probably be back on that uniquely perilous journey characterised by arson, sabotage, and other variants of anomie and delinquency. Remember, the jungle don mature as the governor once proclaimed in a fit of supposedly holy, self-righteous, rage.

And that was even long after the symbol of representative governance – the parliament was torched by – some will argue – agents of the executive. Of course, the bigger drama on the status of the assembly itself would follow later. Indeed, it came in a moment of unforced error, when the majority lawmakers – numbering 27, changed parties on television in Abuja – as against their wards where they registered!

I recall the governor swearing, at some point, that the legislature, not only existed at his pleasure but that the seats of the majority had been voided from then on! Thereafter, he opted to work with a parliament of three members, even when the self-appointed parliament fell short of a quorum in the eyes of the law. From then on, governance, in the Garden City state, simply became a charade – from the budgetary process, the procedural screening of the members of the state executive council, right up to the sham of a so-called local council elections; everything became a one-man show with a throng of conflict entrepreneurs egging the governor on!

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While these were going on, the dominant narrative was that the governor, Sim Fubara was the more sinned against, just as his sparring partner, Nyesom Wike, the supposedly vile godfather-Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, was the sinner. An element of that narrative was that Nigerians cared far less about the crimes of arson, the disregard to the constitution and the brazen outlawry that the governor had come to represent than they do of the godfather’s overbearing antics if not volubility! This was what the army of Wike’s opponents, armed with talking points, sold in their media rounds and duly amplified by their media house allies. They probably won that segment of the battle even if in the end, they lost the war rather ignominiously, where it mattered most – the Supreme Court.

February last year, the justices in their 62-page opinion signed by Justice Emmanuel Agim had pointedly accused the governor of democratic subversion.

“Having by his own admission engaged in a series of illegal activities just to prevent the other 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from participating in the proceedings of the House to carry out their legitimate legislative duties which they were elected to do, his resort to Sections 102 and 109 of the 1999 Constitution and the doctrine of necessity on the basis of his allegation that they have defected is a red herring to perpetuate his subversion of the Rivers State House of Assembly, the 1999 Constitution and democratic government in Rivers State”, part of the judgment read.

More seriously, the apex court would not even be persuaded that a government, properly defined, existed at the time in Rivers State: “A government cannot be said to exist without one of the three arms that make up the government of a state under the 1999 Constitution. In this case, the executive arm of the government has chosen to collapse the legislature to enable him govern without the legislature as a despot. As it is, there is no government in Rivers State”.

The court then made what I consider a point, which I consider particularly relevant at this time: “Political disagreements cannot justify…contempt for the rule of law by the governor of a state or any person. What the 8th respondent (Fubara) has done is to destroy the government because of his fear of being impeached”.

Familiar?

Remember: that was the charade that President Tinubu terminated with the expectation that the feuding parties would use the opportunity to mend their ways. But what do we see months after? The return of the same old playbook in slow motion; of exclusion, of deliberate, systematic emasculation of the legislature – a simple failure to perform a public duty – the constitution of the state executive council. The language though different, conveys the same unmistakeable message: Jungle don mature.

Like in times past, the lawmakers are vexed. And many argue that they have reasons to be – given that the law appears to be on their side. This is particularly so as they are the sole authority on how the monies belonging to the state are spent. And to the extent that they have neither received nor processed the budget instrument on the basis of which the governor could be spending the people’s money, the governor could be deemed to have broken the law. The other matter is that there is no state executive council, properly constituted to run the business of government.

To be honest, the minders of Governor Fubara have not been particularly convincing on either of the issues: the other day, one of them claimed that the governor is still implementing the appropriation passed during the emergency and that the governor has only chosen to run the business of governance with his team of advisers because it is convenient for him!

In the meantime, Nigerians are being asked to choose between the noxious play of the supposedly power-drunk politician and his band of supporters on one hand, and the opportunistic manoeuvres of a wayward godson and his tribe of jesters on the other. Surely, the last thing Nigerians want to indulge is the now familiar swagger of absolutism, of players acting and treating the law as if it exists for mere convenience, and the attempt to deodorise gross misconduct. And now the most tragic of them all: the judiciary being called upon to insert itself into a process that the constitution clearly pronounces as “off limits”!

Yes, I understand the politicians and their mind games and why some doses of madness from their quarters are sometimes necessary to spice up the democratic space. As for the elders – Rivers elders, I understand that those who haven’t gone AWOL have splintered into compartments of ethnicity and the pursuit of lucre. As for the judiciary, I am, sufficiently worried at the ease with which it has been called into the dirty job. The world, surely, is watching!

January 20, 2026
Nigeria marches on…

For many across the globe, the past year must have been enervating not just with Donald Trump’s steep, punishing tariff walls, but his slow-motion torpedoing of the rules-based global order and the emerging rule of unrestrained, unchallengeable power. Thanks to Trump’s new-fangled Donroe doctrine, oil-rich Venezuela is practically under American receivership for debts which the Orange Man insists a certain Maduro owed Uncle Sam. It is a brand new world order – one that is not so much a matter of choice but of compulsion – and if it becomes necessary, extortion.

For Nigeria, the acclaimed giant in the sun, the outgone year must have been one of a new realism and adjustments all the way. First was the burden of a 15 percent tariff clamped on her by Donald Trump under a rather dubious concept of reciprocity; second, the additional burden of fighting a war of terror with America not only breathing down her neck but deliberately mischaracterising as ‘Christian genocide’, and third, the well timed, low intensity scheme to torpedo the administration’s four signature tax laws – arguably the most consequential yet by the Bola Tinubu Presidency.

While the first two were exogenous and so the administration had little or no control over them, it is, nonetheless in my view, safe to say that the administration handled them admirably.

Surely, there are figures to show. Going by the National Bureau of Statistics trade statistics, Nigeria’s exports to Africa in the third quarter of 2025 surged 97.16 per cent year-on-year to N4.9tn, a signal of how much realignment toward emerging markets is taking place, particularly intra-African trade and the BRICS bloc. Notably, exports to the United States and India reportedly declined significantly during the period. In other words, it’s not been exactly a season of lamentation, tariff or no tariff.

And we know the truth about Trump’s so called Christmas present – the precision strike operations were launched with the “explicit approval” of President Bola Tinubu and with “the full involvement of the armed forces of Nigeria”. In any case, that the terror war is being fought with renewed vigour and determination is no longer in doubt.

As for the third, the four tax laws on which the Tinubu administration had staked its reputation as incurable reformer, although the challenge had presented as a test of will for the administration, it was one instance that the administration will prove several steps ahead of an opposition sworn to ensure that the reforms do not see the light of the day.

Nigerians will recall the event of December 17, 2025, when an opposition member of the House of Representatives, Abdulsammad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), raised concerns over alleged inconsistencies between the tax laws passed by the National Assembly and the versions later gazetted and released to the public. Since then, all manners of conspiracy theories have been spawned all of them pouring fuel on the matter but adding little knowledge to the discourse on what matters most: the integrity of the process.

The man, Dasuki, conveniently forgot that four laws were actually passed by the parliament – The Nigeria Tax Act, The Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA), The Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Act (NRSA) and The Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Act (JRBA). He didn’t care to tell Nigerians which of the law was altered. He even pretended not to know that the laws had perforce of presidential assent, were already in operation and so could only be amended through legislative action. For these, the usually excitable partisan mob were led into a wild goose chase over nothing; even as our hordes of street commentariat hopped from one television station to another with barely digested talking points all in the bid to bring down the roof!

For the opposition and those sworn to help them muddy things up, it was sufficient to impugn the process, hoping that by so doing, the law would be rendered inoperable! Well they were wrong! The laws are live!

For me, there is something fundamentally dishonest in what appears to be a calculated ambush of a process that Nigerians saw through with their own eyes. We saw it at the beginning when the Council of States openly kicked against the bill when the draft was first presented to them.

Ever since, it has been bad faith all the way! In fact, it became, at a point, a north-south affair with the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), asking northern lawmakers to reject certain components due to concerns it would disproportionately disadvantage the region, particularly the proposed Value Added Tax (VAT).

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Even the Northern Elders Forum described it as a policy conceived in bad faith and thus threatening national cohesion; none in the north in particular, seems persuaded that the bills deserved to be considered on its merit. A particular northern senator said he could not be bothered to read it let alone contemplate a discussion on it at the chambers! Which is why it is not entirely surprising that the opponents of the new laws are back on the same course.

We are referring here to bills that experts had spent considerable time putting together; in this particular instance, it concerns a subject that the president had long signalled its importance to his administration’s reform agenda. Here is a president who, all along didn’t pretend that he had all the answers to the questions raised by the bills’ opponents, requesting at a stage that objections be channelled to the parliament as part of the process. And to imagine in the final count that the outcome still fell short of satisfying the bloc of those who think that the president does not deserve a landmark legislation to his name! And to further imagine that they are not even about to give up the fight long after the laws have been in operation can only be a measure of the depth of their desperation!

How far will they go?

At this time, it’s hard to imagine. I salute the chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, Taiwo Oyedele. He has done a yeoman’s job of breaking down the issues for the ordinary Nigerian to understand. Mercifully too, the House of Representatives has released the certified copies of the four tax reform Acts. However, while the resort to open blackmail and campaign of misinformation has, thus far failed, I think the House of Representatives still owes the nation one additional duty: the man who came under the shield of privilege in parliament to raise hell must be compelled to show proof; in the event of failure to do that, he must be compelled to apologise to Nigerians whose privileges he has criminally violated.

Happy New Year, dear readers.

January 13, 2026
Tunji-Ojo: Redefining public service

I can’t exactly recall who it was that forwarded to me a short video clip of an encounter between Interior Minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo and a station officer in one of Federal Fire Service (FFS) stations in Abuja. In the clip, the minister had stopped by, apparently on an unscheduled visit to know the state of the fire trucks stationed in the premises particularly the state of their readiness in the event of an emergency. An encounter would turn out as much a revelation as it is a testimonial on the state of the nation’s public service: not only was the entire place in deplorable conditions, the few trucks parked in the premise had no water – the official excuse being that the trucks had gone out for operations days before had not had enough time to take in fresh supplies of water!

The account, later put out by the minister would convey not so much his palpable disappointment (which was evident in the brief encounter), but a firm, even barely stated resolve, to clear the mess the same way he had battled the daemons in the service points under his watch:

“Today, I paid an unscheduled visit to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) FCT Command and the Federal Fire Service command, Wuse Zone 3 station. The visit helped in the conduct of an on-the-spot assessment of our facilities, and the general preparedness of our gallant officers to address incidents as they can emerge quite unexpectedly. The orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) are clear in his yesterday’s national address to the nation where he noted that all hands must be on deck in our collective responsibility to secure this great nation. Security is life, and Mr President is trusting our officers to deliver on the issue of internal security and the protection of critical national assets.

As Minister of Interior, I believe that they will deliver on this, so that we can all be proud of Nigeria, and be able to call this great country a home. More importantly, I will continue to conduct unscheduled on-the-spot assessment of paramilitary commands across the country, as I want to see things the way they are. For me, I want to see the sort of service that Nigerians are getting across all our agencies because like what I always say, a good service is not good enough for Nigerians, but the best, always”.

Minister Tunji-Ojo is right to expect the very best from his front line officials. After all, he is known to have improved the capacity of the agency with the purchase of new equipment, rapid response vehicles, and systems that enhance response time. The story of how the minister has remodelled Federal Fire Service Academy in Abuja is out in the open. But what chance would he have had to turn things around without such surprises designed to keep operatives on their toes?

No doubt, a lot has been written about Nigeria’s Interior Minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, as one of those bright faces that have delivered not just values to the Bola Tinubu administration, but unparalleled innovations. Talk of redefining the public service in its entirety, Tunji-Ojo, whom his friends call BTO, appears to have captured the imagination of Nigerians as an exemplar of the kind of leadership that Nigeria sorely requires particularly at this time of transition: resourceful (IT-savvy); disciplined and focused – a goal getter. Given that Nigerians are not the easiest to please, it is a measure of the value he represents that Nigerians continue to speak of him in glowing terms.

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Here is a minister who moved the mountains where others before him could only skate in circles. Where others saw problems, he thought of them as challenges – and so solvable. Just when successive ministers had sold the passport problem as intractable, he chose to tackle it headlong. First was the issue of the 200, 000 backlog which he inherited. The problem, we were led to believe at the time, was shortage of passport booklets! How the backlog was cleared in a matter of weeks must go on record as the stuff of a genius. There was also the issue of debts said to be to the tune of N28 billion – and this, ironically, for services for which Nigerians are required to pay upfront! This, we now know, have since been retired with Nigerians still wondering about the magic deployed by BTO to clear the mess. With the seamless process currently in place, Nigerians readily testify that the nightmare once associated with passport acquisition is over.

While it is no secret that the minister possesses a background in Information Technology, the marvel is how he has managed to bring the discipline of that technology into virtually every aspect of the job entrusted to him in a public service traditionally known to resist change – and still get fulsome praise for the results!

A good example is the collapse of the 96-odd decentralized personalization centres to a single, secure, centralized and highly efficient passport processing centre, located at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja. That initiative, midwifed by Tunji-Ojo, not only aligns with global best practices but has significantly improved the quality, security, and also reduced the processing and issuance time of Nigerian passports.

His record at the nation’s gateways – the airports – would again attest to the same zeal undergirded by knowledge. Under his watch, some 40 e-gates across the Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt airports have been deployed to facilitate easy passage and maximum comfort. He has equally deployed the “Smart Border Solution” cutting edge technology with the implementation of Smart Border Management and Advanced Passenger Information Systems (APIS). Then is the INTERAS- Electronic Record and Archival Systems, aimed at digitizing records and streamlining operations across various services and agencies, the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC) and the new digital platform, Comprehensive Expatriate Residence Permits and Automated Card (CEREAL) application process – the common thread of which is to make service delivery less cumbersome with efficiency and effectiveness as goal.

He has equally paid due attention to the Nigerian Correctional Services. He has ensured the completion of ultra-modern furniture, leather, and shoe factories to afford inmates the opportunity of comprehensive rehabilitation and skills acquisition; the rehabilitation, renovation, and upgrades of some correctional centres across the country has been done. And then, a 4.81 tier petabytes Command and Control centre with 4.1MW battery capacity solar farm which was established to serve the need of Nigeria Correctional Service.

What I consider the most touching of the interventions by the minister is his mobilisation of N585 million from corporate bodies as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to pay the fines of 4,068 inmates serving jail terms for petty offences in various correctional centres across the country. That, to me is a novelty, beyond the call of duty. But then, that is the essence of public service – touching lives in meaningful ways. If only for this, the man they call BTO deserves to be garlanded.

Merry Christmas dear readers.

December 23, 2025
Dangote, cartel and national interest

Only those unfamiliar with recent happenings in the midstream and downstream petroleum sector could afford to pretend that they didn’t see the roforofo coming. However, whereas the moment had become somewhat inevitable, yet, even by the so-called Nigerian standard where rules and conventions are more often than not observed in the breach, there is a lot to be said about Sunday’s laser guided missiles hurled at the regulator of the midstream and downstream petroleum sector, and the cartel of fuel importers, by the president of the Dangote Group, that speaks to the extraordinariness of the current time.

That the gloves are finally off is an understatement. To those who know, the battle has been joined long before the Sunday, December 14 event with the latter date merely being the H-Hour. It was the day chosen by Aliko Dangote to step out, guns-a-blazing, in what became his long-awaited riposte to the sectoral undercurrents that has seen his corporate behemoth spar with the regulator and the cartel of fuel importers over the course of the past few months.

Call it bare-knuckle: no ambiguities, no pretences and no attempt sophistries: the Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), he asserted, had become a major source of his headache. Yet, much as he thought little of the institution, he actually thought far less of its helmsman, Farouk Ahmed, whom he accused of compromise, corruption and possibly, sabotage.

As they say of war, all is deemed to be fair!

Yes, Dangote, in a burst of moral outrage, challenged Nigerians to figure out how an individual, who had spent his entire life in public service, somehow managed to shell out a princely $5 million fees for his four wards in Swiss secondary schools over a six-year period without the unseen hands of benevolent patrons.

The expenditure, in his judgment, ‘raised serious questions about potential conflicts of interest and the integrity of regulatory oversight in the downstream petroleum sector’ and so should matter, not just to the anti-graft agencies, the tax man but to every Nigerian interested in getting the sector sanitised. I couldn’t agree more with him!

His words: “When you look at his income, his income does not match paying this kind of fee. And even if it’s me paying $5m for six years for my four children, the taxman has to look at my taxes and how much I pay,” he stated. In other words, the industry policeman, rather than serve the public interest, would seem hostage to interests that are at variance with the national interest!

Yet, much as one is tempted to see the charge, particularly the underlying insinuation, coming at this time, as nothing short of extraordinary, I don’t think Nigerians should suffer the distraction of failing to understand what the real issues are: the governance of the midstream and downstream sector, and the question of whether the current framework could be said to be fair and even-handed at a time of the sector’s transition. While the anti-graft bodies have taken the hint, and so should not detain us here, Nigerians must be seen to appreciate the need to sift the wheat from the chaff so as not to throw the good away with the bad!

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Surely, that there is no love lost between Dangote Refinery and NMDPRA is certainly an open secret. Most certainly, I understand why the former will be piqued by what appears to be unhelpful posturing of the latter. Only last year, on July 18, 2024, Farouk Ahmed, had alleged that local refineries, including the Dangote refinery, were producing inferior products compared to imports – a charge that was stoutly denied by the refinery at the time. Trust Nigerians: they let things pass without a firm resolution of that particular issue.

Again in October, NMDPRA would make another claim: that Dangote Refinery supplies the market far less than it claims. It puts the company’s daily average at 20 million litres as against the 50 million litres requirement of the local market. Expectedly, this was promptly refuted by Dangote Group spokesman, Anthony Chiejina: “the refinery now loads 45 million litres of PMS and 25 million litres of diesel daily, which exceeds Nigeria’s demand”. In fact, he told Bloomberg: “This significant production capacity not only guarantees local supply, but also enhances energy security and reduces dependence on imports”.

Still, Nigerians remain at sea for answers. In fact, it remains a national shame that issues of determining how much crude is refined and consumed daily continue to be a source of dispute. In this particular instance, the government apparently considers the NMDPRA figures as more believable; hence it suspended the 15 percent fuel import tax originally proposed to take immediate effect until the first quarter of next year.

I do appreciate how challenging the refining turf is. Surely, a man who has committed so much of his life and fortune to deliver the national dream should feel entitled to protection by the government. Yet, such expectations, call for a delicate balancing between the corporate’s guarantee of survival and the overall stability of the economy. Surely, Nigerians are not confused about what the issues are: Dangote Refinery deserves every support that the government can give – and this subject to its proven capacity; just as the nation’s best interests must remain a major consideration at all times. That would explain why the government, in its wisdom, came up with the adjustment in the 15 percent tax to, in the words of FIRS chairman Zacch Adedeji, “provide adequate time for stakeholders to complete alignment on technical templates, public communication frameworks, and import scheduling, thereby minimising disruption to the supply chain and ensuring that the reform achieves its intended stabilising impact.” We are talking of something that is only three months away!

Finally, on the cartels in the downstream arena: the club of international traders and local marketers all of whom, Dangote believes have colluded to undermine local refining; ‘organised cartels’, he claimed, pose a “bigger threat than drug mafias”.

He recounted multiple sabotage incidents at both his facility and public refineries, a notable example of which was the removal of spare parts from a 400-ton boiler described as the largest ever built!

“If I tell you the sabotages that we went through, including some of the machine manufacturers that were on the verge of going to court, you will know what I’m saying.

“Drug mafias are actually smaller than the people who are in oil and gas. They have robbed so many people in this sector,” he was quoted to have said.

Surely, that is where the main battle ahead lies. My answer: VIGILANCE! Even here, there can be no underestimating the capacity of the Dangote Group to do battle. Already, we have seen evidence of this at the bully pulpit and at the fuel dispensing pumps. Thanks to the undeclared war, petrol prices are expected to drop to N739 per litre nationwide, beginning today, with initial implementation at MRS stations in Lagos – all things being equal. While the question of whether this is merely a pyrrhic victory or one that will usher in lasting respite for the fuel consumer lies in the womb of time, it is a Nigerian win all the same!

December 16, 2025
Re: ‘The trial of Minister Wike’
- By TJ ISHOLA
Sanya Oni’s article, The Trial of Minister Wike, makes an earnest attempt to situate the Wike–Lieutenant Yerima incident within the broader question of civil–military relations in Nigeria. But in doing so, it performs a delicate rhetorical dance—one that inadvertently obscures more than it clarifies and shifts responsibility away from the central actors whose misconduct precipitated the confrontation in the first place.

The article laments “institutional arrogance” within the military and warns against the inflation of Lieutenant Yerima into a national hero. Fair points – if taken in isolation. But the central flaw in Oni’s framing is the attempt to recast the entire confrontation as a morality lesson on military indiscipline, while glossing over the far more troubling and well-documented pattern of ministerial impunity that led to the encounter.

A case of selective outrage

Oni presents Wike’s invasion of the site as a bold, almost revolutionary attempt to “enforce the law”—a minister heroically confronting uniformed obstructionists. Yet this reading ignores the consistent and documented pattern of the FCT Minister ignoring due process, bypassing advisory mechanisms, and reducing the technical administration of Abuja to an arena for political theatrics.

The question is not whether the military can be overbearing. It can be. But in this case:

It was not the military that allocated land in breach of planning regulations.

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It was not the military that failed to follow established administrative procedures before attempting demolition.

It was not the military that showed up with cameras, commissioners, and a full parade of senior civil servants in the middle of an unresolved dispute.

Sanya Oni calls the official entourage a “horde of directors,” but fails to acknowledge that their presence is itself an indictment of the FCT’s governance style: spectacle over substance.

The central issue: Abuse of executive discretion

The article accuses the military of “obstruction” but fails to mention the unresolved legality of the land itself, or Wike’s obligation to obtain a court order or follow internal resolution protocols before attempting enforcement.

Instead of asking the obvious questions—

Was the revocation lawful?

Was the process complete?

Was enforcement premature?

Did the minister follow internal dispute-resolution channels?

The columnist opts for easier targets: military arrogance, public sentiment, and the supposed irrational defence of the uniform.

It is a misdirection. Civilian oversight does not mean ministerial absolutism

Oni rightly notes that the military must be subordinate to civilian authority. But subordination does not mean blind obedience to ministerial overreach. Civilian authority is exercised within the rule of law—not through public outbursts, ad-hoc enforcement, or personalised interpretations of power.

When a minister attempts enforcement in a legally contested scenario without exhausting procedural requirements, the duty of any disciplined officer—military or civilian—is to prevent escalation, not to surrender judgment at the altar of political theatrics.

Yerima’s conduct is not above scrutiny, but neither does it warrant demonisation simply to vindicate the minister’s excesses.

A troubling attempt to normalise the deployment of soldiers for private purposes

Oni rightly criticises the use of naval personnel to guard private property, yet simultaneously treats Wike’s manner of intervention as a legitimate assertion of state authority. But one abuse does not sanitise another.

The real scandal is twofold: A former service chief appropriated public land and deployed uniformed personnel for private security; a serving minister, instead of pursuing legal redress, chose confrontation as spectacle.

Reducing this complex illegality to a quarrel over “respect for the uniform” trivialises the matter.

The heroism debate: A false binary

Oni mocks the framing of Lt. Yerima as a hero. But the defenders of Yerima are not necessarily valorising him—they are condemning what they perceive as Wike’s habitual disregard for institutional norms.

The pushback is not about the heroism of a young Lieutenant. It is about the public humiliation of a junior officer by a minister who has developed a reputation for conflating personal authority with the authority of the state.

And to dismiss this concern as “nonsense” is to ignore the repeated incidents in which this minister has insulted civil servants, berated professionals on camera, and treated the FCT like a personal fiefdom.

If Nigeria is truly committed to building robust democratic institutions, then the conversation cannot begin and end with military subordination.

We must also ask:

What are the limits of ministerial power?

When does executive impatience become executive lawlessness?

Should a minister be permitted to perform enforcement operations live on camera?

What safeguards exist for junior officers dealing with politically powerful figures?

These are the questions Oni’s article sidesteps.

The drumbeat of dangerous hyperbole

Oni criticises Buratai’s comparison of verbal confrontation with treason—a valid criticism. But the article remains strangely silent on the minister’s own use of inflammatory, provocative language that escalated tensions rather than de-escalating them.

You cannot criticise one side’s hyperbole and treat the other’s as administrative enthusiasm.

Conclusion: No one is above the law — not the military, not the minister

Oni is right that we must resist the militarisation of civilian life. But we must also resist the political personalisation of public institutions.

Wike’s conduct was neither an ode to democracy nor a defence of the rule of law. Yerima’s action was neither heroic nor treasonous.

The incident is simply the latest illustration of the institutional disorder that arises when public officials—civilian or military—operate outside established procedures and accountability frameworks.

Nigeria does not need more articles framing this confrontation as a morality tale with heroes and villains. What we need is an honest conversation about executive impunity, military overreach, abuse of state resources, the politicisation of law enforcement, and the weakening of institutions through personal ego and performative governance.

On these matters, Sanya Oni’s article is unfortunately more obfuscation than clarity.

•Yusuf writes from United Kingdom.
December 2, 2025
Tinapa: The jewel returns?

While the news of its ‘resurrection’ may not have competed with others on the front pages as it ought to in some respects: yet, it needs to be said that something happened to the once-famous jewel in the Cross River economic firmament on November 7 that is deserving of a more than a passing attention. On that day, Tinapa, the multi-billion naira complex that once projected the state as a potential global powerhouse of business and tourism was finally repossessed from the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria, AMCON.

This was how an elated Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu captured the moment: “Today’s event has finally removed the legal lacuna on the ownership of Tinapa, which is now the bona fide property of the Cross River State government…We are not only reclaiming the facility, but also increasing the stock of our enduring infrastructure. The return of Tinapa is not merely an event; it is a rebirth, the triumph of faith, patience, and resilience…This is more than reclaiming an asset; it is the revival of a vision that once placed Cross River on the global economic map”.

Talk of the resurrection of a dream long given as ‘interred’; something of an eight wonder in the world!

Governor Otu and his team not only deserve commendation for retrieving the complex from the hand of the undertaker – the Bad Bank better known as AMCON, but refusing the Tinapa dream die. With good structures properly deployed going forward, there is yet a chance that the state might yet recover not just the value already poured in by way of investments and goodwill, but possible realignment with the founding ideals which the receivership may have aborted along the line.

Yet, if the truth be told, the story of how the 265 hectares property Leisure Resort, situated in Adiabo on the outskirts of Calabar, originally conceived by the Donald Duke administration to be a world class tourism, investment and leisure hub, whose breaking ceremony was performed in 2005, fell into the hand of the ‘Bad Bank’ deserves to be fully captured if only for its enduring lessons. A typical misshapen that is peculiarly Nigerian; on the one hand is the tale of a business ecosystem whose processes are more often than not, a recipe for failure; and on the other is the issue of continuity that has remained the bane of governance in these parts.

Tinapa’s problems were said to have started soon after the inauguration of the first phase of the resort in 2007. First was the issue of its legal status as a free trade zone, when only the federal government could operate a free trade zone. Liyel Imoke, who succeeded the visioner – Donald Duke, had, reportedly appealed to the federal government to take a stake in the project and to remove uncertainty about its status said to be hindering investment, all to no avail. Convinced that private investors could do at least a better job of putting the project on track through capital injection and managerial expertise, his overtures to them also reportedly hit a brick wall. While these were going on, the Nigeria Custom Service would insist on charging duty on purchases as they were brought out of the zone thus rendering businesses in the resort generally unprofitable. Of course, it was a matter of time before the shops within the complex started drawing the shutters, with other facilities such as the exhibition space and movie studio soon following!

To compound this was the issue of mounting debts, which at some point climbed to N18 billion for a state that was resource-challenged. Realising that the burden had become too much for the state to bear, the then governor, Imoke was said to have turned the resort over to AMCON; (the latter expected to inject about N29 billion to revive business activities in Tinapa before inviting investors to take over majority shares). That, as it turned out, never happened. Imoke’s successor, Ben Ayade, unfortunately did nothing to help the situation and so Tinapa’s fortunes further dipped. The final damage came with the EndSARS protest of 2020 during which damages said to be in excess of N100 billion were recorded.

That was the mess that the current governor, Bassey Otu, met on ground. Evidence that the governor has been working round the clock is the seal marking the repossession of the facility. Now the governor can claim that his quest to restore trust among investors and his government’s readiness to drive socio-economic renewal is well on course.

However, as I noted earlier, that act, of restoration that is, in itself can only be the first step in the journey to the resuscitation of a dream that was nearly aborted. To be sure, the achievement ought to be seen beyond the mere premise of increasing the stock of strategic infrastructure available to the state, (which is important), but rather in terms of how much value it will be able to deliver to the state and its people in terms of jobs and value creation across the board. That seems to yours truly, the best validation for the restoration of the complex as bona fide asset of the state government.

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Yet, true as the words of an observer is, that the repossession marks a decisive step towards ending years of redundancy and abandonment, the big task in my view, which is one of actualising the original vision of Tinapa as a transformative business and leisure hub, is still, at least at this point, a long way ahead.

Notably, the government is said to be in discussions with potential partners in the agro sub-sector and manufacturing, to demonstrate Tinapa’s renewed attractiveness. Surely, the good people of Cross River cannot wait to see the fruits of the engagement blossom. Even in this, it seems to me also that the Bassey Otu administration would need to provide further clarification on what this means in concrete terms to potential investors, particularly in those areas they might wish to collaborate with the state government.

Surely, it is one thing for the state to have crawled out of the clutches of the creditor, ensuring a vastly improved business environment is however a different kettle altogether. In other words, the other question of what has changed in the status of the complex remains largely unanswered. As it is, one expects that the experiences of the past years will guide the state government in coming up with a direction, going forward. That way, the state and its people wouldn’t have to relive the nightmarish date with the Bad Bank.

November 25, 2025
The trial of Minister Wike

Exactly a week after, it comes as no surprise that Nigeria and Nigerians are nowhere reaching agreement on what is substance and what is peripheral among the issues that led to last Tuesday’s face-off between Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike and Navy Lieutenant Ahmad Yerima, the young officer deployed on guard duties on the property said to belong to the immediate past Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Zubairu Gambo (retd.)

For while the deliberate, if not entirely programmed, obfuscation by those for whom any opportunity to pillory Wike and the Tinubu government at whose behest he serves might ordinarily seem fair game, the way and manner the military establishment in particular, including their hordes of supporters within and outside of government have been carrying on, going as far as to tag the young officer a hero, not only typifies the institutional arrogance that has long been in the character of the Nigerian military, but betrays its poor grasp of the imperatives of military subordination to civilian control as one might imagine under democratic rule.

It is interesting how the military has since mounted a spirited rally in support of one of its own, which is not exactly a bad thing save for the opportunistic framing of the issue as one of disrespect to the military uniform, as against the legendary arrogance under which other national institutions get routinely undermined, assaulted, with our laws rendered impotent, and shredded by the military – a derivative of which is the pitting the citizens against our uniformed men.

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Those who described the Tuesday event as horror scene have a point, considering that a minister with his hordes of directors in tow being engaged in verbal altercations with a young officer is not something one sees often. Yet, there is something in the subtext of the day’s outing that speaks to the state of the disorder even among our institutions, including those we often valorise.

As in all cases, the pattern is always nearly the same with variances only in details: a brass hat wants or does something out of what the law could conveniently permit. When those in charge would neither endorse nor grant the permit to proceed, he draws upon brawn and muscle to give effect to his desire. In the process, those charged with the duty of control and management are not only prevented from undertaking their legitimate duty; they are actually hounded like felons – sometimes at the pain of losing limbs and lives.

All of these, according to reports, were all in play in the build up to the Tuesday altercation. What Nigerians saw live on Tuesday November 11 was merely the climax of the not-so-subterranean battle that started days before: An enraged minister and his team storming the site – Bastille style – apparently to enforce the law only to meet a naval platoon, led by a Lieutenant on guard duty, to keep the law not only at bay, but in permanent abeyance if it comes to that! Little wonder that Wike’s enemies – and they are quite a number – have been all over town in celebration over what is supposed to be a brutal putdown of a man that they love to hate!

You know the rest.

Now, someone would have us accept that the issue at stake is about disrespect for the uniform! Not the disrespect that started with sending uniformed men to secure building sites in defiance of the law, or physical planning regulations and the authority of the president at the behest of whom Minister Wike serves? No concerns with the alleged crime of obstruction from the performance of lawful duty and the associated assault on the MFCT officials, an offence which in itself is punishable under the law?

And now the officer, who led the team that chased out the officials from performing their lawful duty, is being touted as a ‘hero’; not of the battle-field where the best of our gallant men and women are tested but in the defence of the private estate of a Nigerian big man! Talk of some Nigerians painting such as the stuff of which our heroes are made!

Meanwhile, the above is nothing compared with the reaction of the former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, now a chieftain of the ADC. He demands that Wike publicly apologise to President Bola Tinubu, the Armed Forces, and the military officer. He then goes on to equate what he called “disparagement of a uniformed officer of the Nigerian Armed Forces” with treason.

To use his words: “A minister’s verbal assault on a military officer in uniform is an act of profound indiscipline that strikes at the core of our nation’s command and control structure. It deliberately undermines the chain of command, disrespects the authority of the Commander-in-Chief and grievously wounds the morale of every individual who serves under the Nigerian flag. Such actions erode the very foundation of discipline upon which our national security apparatus stands.”

Discerning Nigerians know that this is arrant nonsense: the uniform does not make the fighting men any more patriotic than the well-starched khaki would automatically predispose them to citizens’ respect. How about the disorderly conduct of some of his men particularly when they wilfully insert themselves into civilian matters thus drawing opprobrium to their beloved institution?

Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor (retd.), was just as sanctimonious: “the uniform of military and security personnel symbolises the authority, dignity, and sovereignty of the Nigerian state, and that any act of disrespect towards those wearing it amounts to an insult to the country itself”.

Agreed, but then, authority, far from being abstract, comes with responsibility. Fine; the two brass hats see nothing wrong with the deployment of the young officer to guard private property. We are supposed to accept this as norm – something permissible in the course of duty. Same with the use of men wearing uniforms as they pleased, and that, possibly, includes conversion of officers into non-regimental duties whenever it suited them!

As for the alleged outlawry, the unlawful expropriation and subsequent conversion of the property in question – parks and gardens – into such ends not so designated by the MFCT authorities; that apparently should be far more tolerable than the offence for which they seek the neck of Nyesom Wike!

And now the duo of Bello Matawalle and Mohammed Badaru, both cabinet-colleagues of Wike putting their colleague to the sword for fear of ruffling the feathers of a section of their beloved military. Talk of the perfect Nigerian metamorphosis: from entitlement to impunity, then outlawry, and inevitably, to legitimisation. Talk of yet another riveting Nigerian story.

November 18, 2025
Country of Particular Concern!

It is merely stating the obvious that Nigerians have long been divided on the issue of the engulfing terror – whether it is of the Boko Haram, the so-called herder-farmer clashes, the ravaging banditry, or even the industry-scale kidnapping that continues to defy solution. Add to these the reign of unknown gunmen that have in equal measure reduced swathes of the southeast into virtual wastelands, the Nigerian conundrum, given its complexities, can only continue confound.

Yet, nothing more could have brought the depth of the chasm home than the interjection of the United States into the ‘fray’, with the country putting Nigeria on the global spotlight as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) – a country where Christians, for their faith, are routinely put to the sword of rampaging jihadists.

Thanks to the intriguing world of social media; two successive posts by President Donald Trump on his Truth Social and that was it! The first announcing the designation of Nigeria a “country of particular concern” over its failure to, in Trump words, stop the “mass slaughter” of Christians; and the other, directing the Defence Department to prepare for possible military action.

“If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities”. The attack – were it to happen, he said, “will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians”.

Just like that!

The truth however is that United States president Donald Trump did not come to the decision lightly let alone overnight. Surely, the plot cannot be said to be entirely new considering that the country was similarly designated in his first coming as president. While his evangelical base has raised the ante, their local counterparts, have also been active over the years, preparing as it were, with gory visuals, their narratives about Christian genocide.

My worry is that Nigerians are being seduced into the false choice between deliberate mischaracterisation of a national tragedy and a denial of same. It is an unenviable situation for a country to find itself.

Nigerians interested in an in-depth study of the phenomenon might wish to consult the article by political scientist Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos, a specialist in violence in Africa, with the title From the U.S. to Nigeria: How a ‘Christian Genocide’ Narrative Is Being Manufactured – for a window into the questionable methodology of the supporting data on which the grim actions by the United States are being contemplated as indeed the dilemma faced by those who truly seek the truth.

Here is a summary of Pérouse de Montclos’s position: “Undoubtedly, there are discrimination and anti-Christian persecutions in northern Nigeria. On occasion, Christians are also killed because of their faith, particularly during attacks on places of worship by jihadists from the Boko Haram movement, by criminal gangs, or, very rarely, by members of rival churches. But it is important not to exaggerate the demographic scale of these incidents and to put them into perspective in a country, the most populous on the continent, with over 200 million inhabitants”.

He thereafter warns: Beyond the macabre debates over the number of victims, the issue is primarily political. Whether concerning the fate of Christians or Muslims, narratives about a “religious” genocide must therefore be understood in a secular context”.

Suffice to add that had the officials of United States government bothered to track the varied manifestations of violence across the board – from Nigeria’s troubled Northeast, Northwest, Middle Belt and Southeast – they would have taken a far more restrained – some say nuanced, view, rather than a single factor of Christian ‘genocide’ which is at best self-serving.

By the way, didn’t the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in its last year report dismiss the notion of genocide when it noted that “Violence affects large numbers of Christians and Muslims in several states across Nigeria”?

To return to President Trump and his threat to bomb the hell out of the terrorists: In a nation already divided along the cleavages of tribe and religion, it seems more like pouring petrol on a combustible element. Little wonder that everyone has been talking since even if no one appears to be listening. Indeed, while Trump and his Truth Social may have won over a sizeable number of brothers in a way that we could never have imagined – to borrow the immortal words Chinua Achebe – our people, far from acting like one, have been further sundered. Indeed, Trump appears to have finally ‘put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart’.

Yet, one good thing that could be said of the threat is the renewed consciousness it has brought to the need to stem the tide of insecurity. While I would wager that many Nigerians will probably go for the Trump solution provided that full-proof guarantees could be extracted that the mission will be quick and tidy even at the cost of injured national pride and sovereignty, to the extent that this is neither feasible or even practicable can only mean that the problem is almost exclusively Nigeria’s to solve, which again throws up the question of whether or not the threat by the United States president could be said to be warranted in the first place.

These are no doubt, extraordinary times. Indeed, President Bola Tinubu could not have framed the challenge better: “The most important thing is the fact that despite the political headwinds and the fear of our people, we will continue to engage with partners.

“We are engaging the world diplomatically, and we assure all of you that we will defeat terrorism in this country.

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“The task ahead is immense, but it is our resolve to move forward with unity and purpose, guided by the Renewed Hope Agenda to build a prosperous, inclusive and resilient Nigeria.”

That surely is the way to go.

As for Peter Obi, plus or minus his opportunistic politics, the high point of which was his averment of “an unprecedented level of insecurity with attendant carnage and the most shocking loss of lives and property”, a situation, which he claimed “has worsened due to the government’s failure to act decisively”, he nonetheless still retained sufficient grace to come to the same conclusion with the president that “present situation calls for constructive diplomatic and any other plausible engagement by both nations aimed at addressing the prevailing and disturbing security concerns”.

Don’t ask me where former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has been all of these while. One only needs to recall his now deleted tweet on Deborah Yakubu to understand his preference for leadership by silence! It is as they say – a case being once bitten, twice shy!

“There cannot be a justification for such gruesome murder. Deborah Yakubu was murdered and all those behind her death must be brought to justice. My condolences to her family and friends”, his social media handler had reportedly tweeted shortly after the murder.

Imagine the one-time number two citizen taking cover under dubious semantics of a disclaimer for the inoffensive tweet simply because the killer-mob expressed outrage! Yet, he aspires to be the leader for the season!

November 11, 2025
Uneasy times for the ‘Deep State’

When in January 2024, the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration issued a circular directing “automatic” 50 percent remittance of the total revenue of all its self-funded enterprises, not a few wondered if this was merely precursor to the overdue comprehensive fiscal governance reforms at the federal level or a mere touch up of the vice-ridden old ways of the Nigerian bureaucracy.

“The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF), subject to the categorization of agencies shall map and automatically effect direct deduction of 50% on gross revenue of self/partially funded agency/parastatals and 100% for fully funded agencies/ parastatals as interim remittance of amount due to the Consolidated Revenue Fund,” the circular had read at the time.

The practice, hitherto, was for the agencies to retain up to 50 percent of their revenue as expenditure while keeping 20 percent of the balance as “operating surplus” —the balance apparently left for the principal to do as it pleased with.

The move, according to the federal government, was meant to improve revenue generation, fiscal discipline, accountability and transparency in the management of government financial resources and prevention of waste and inefficiencies.

Notable agencies affected included the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS).

I recall Waziri Adio of Agora Policy, warning that “these cash-saturated agencies had become founts of mind-blowing profligacy and sleazy vehicles for patronage and rent-extraction!

It was no exaggeration. In truth, these agencies had become a lot more! Aside the humongous sums they collectively deny the national exchequer in entitled funds, they evince the demonstrable power of the deep state together with their apparatus of subversion and institutional denudation!

Imagine having an agency of government run recurrent and capital outlays that dwarf those of some state governments, and this without the strictures of appropriation by parliament; that Nigeria and Nigerians tolerated that practice that represents a clear affront not just to the law but of constitutionalism can only be in the realm of the usual Nigerian mystery. To think that the same Nigerians are only too eager to recite Section 162(1) of 1999 Constitution which requires that all revenues collected by the federal government be paid into a special account called the Federation Account, with a few exceptions in their never-ending ‘federalist expositions!

Here is the thing: Aside the personal income tax of the personnel of the armed forces, the Nigeria Police Force, the ministry or department of government charged with responsibility for Foreign Affairs and the residents of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja which were singled out in the quoted section, nowhere in the document did it refer to our big spending parastatals as remotely qualifying for such privilege! And this is a document that has been in operation since 1999 together with all the amendments!

Surely, if Olusegun Obasanjo in his holy rage did not blink an eye in snuffing out the life out of the Sani Abacha-created Petroleum Trust Fund, PTF, the wonder ought to be in the survival of related practices which expressly offend the letters and the spirit of the law. The agency, created in the wake of the removal of fuel subsidy at the time- was administered by select consultants under the direction of the late president, Muhammadu Buhari, and operated like a parallel government answerable only to Abacha – the Supremo. President Obasanjo merely on the ground of its incompatibility with the country’s supreme law, despite the pressures from the usual quarters of privilege, didn’t even need to confer with the judiciary let alone the parliament to terminate its incestuous existence!

Call it pragmatic, we know that the referenced January 2024 circular, conceding the 50 percent revenue to the agencies, could only have been temporary for the reform-minded Tinubu administration. After all, ensuring that leakages are plugged at every level, and ensuring that every kobo due to the exchequer is accounted for, would seem the least that an administration sworn to overhaul the public finance system could pursue with uncommon vigour given the financial mess that the country has found itself. But in this, most Nigerians would appear to have been fixated on the tax reforms almost entirely to the exclusion of the needed wholesale reengineering particularly in the face of the obnoxious fiscal practices.

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Thanks to the administration’s Economic Management Team, this obvious lacuna did not elude them. Only that this time, no tanks are being rolled out and no concessions are being offered: only a simple directive with a definite timeline: All collections by the agencies must henceforth go straight into the federation account. The money, after all, belongs to Nigerians and not to any agency operating in silos. And so, the long-standing practice that allowed revenue agencies to deduct a share of funds as the cost of collection before remitting proceeds to the federation account has come to an end.

The decision, since approved by President Bola Tinubu, is said to be aimed at tightening fiscal discipline, enhancing transparency and ensuring that all revenues are available for distribution among the three tiers of government.

Even here, Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Wale Edun couldn’t resist a reminder on the anchor of the law: the constitutional requirement that all revenues be remitted into the federation account before distribution using the approved sharing formula.

And then the sordid practices that have made our public finance practices such a joke: “When you look at the gross figure, you see all kinds of deductions before you get to the net distributable figure, which goes to the federal, state, and local governments. And I must inform you that even during the last FAAC allocation, most of those deductions have been removed once and for all”. Good riddance!

Hopefully, Nigerians, with time, will come to appreciate the import of this new thinking when the stocks are finally taken of the trillions annually creamed off by members of Nigeria’s Greed Incorporated, and cost of the unfulfilled dreams of national renewal. For now, it suffices to stop the haemorrhage!

Finally, say what you may: surely, no administration, past and present, has taken on so much within so short a time as we have seen in the last 28 months of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu presidency. Like a builder whose mastery of the game is unequalled, the administration plods on, with its eyes on legacy. Yes, it’s been a season of demolition: from the fraud-riddled infrastructure of subsidy, to that of arbitrage and now, to one of state licensed heist. Although the job might seem slow at the beginning, surely, there can be no denial of its rhyme and rhythm. That is – if only Nigerians will care to pay attention.

October 28, 2025