Former Edo Governor Adams Oshiomhole, during the Senate screening of President Tinubu’s nominees for Nigeria’s petroleum regulatory agencies, shared insightful commentary that garnered attention.

While addressing the nominees for the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Oshiomhole acknowledged their qualifications and highlighted the importance of effective policy choices in driving progress. He emphasized the need for strategic state support for local, labor-intensive industries to foster job creation.

Oshiomhole expressed a desire for positive change as he discussed the recent leadership transition, welcoming the removal of Engineer Farouk Ahmed. He characterized the previous policies as counterproductive to Nigeria’s prosperity and stated, “Anyone who opposes job creation and opts for importing poverty is not contributing to our nation’s future.”

He encouraged the new nominees to prioritize patriotism and national interests above personal ambitions. In a light-hearted conclusion, he remarked, “I’m celebrating progress tonight because of Farouk’s removal,” reflecting his optimism about the President’s decisive actions for the country’s development.

Every week, President Tinubu faces a new problem. His Tinubu administration seems to be walking from one crisis to another every now and then.  Is it negligence, incompetence, or just bad luck? While security challenges are surging, the US is breathing down on him. At the moment, he’s dealing with a serious diplomatic spat with Burkina Faso.

Eleven Nigerian military personnel are being detained in that country, days after the plane in which they were travelling made an “unauthorised” landing in the south-west city of Bobo Dioulasso. The problem started on Monday when a Nigerian military cargo plane, a C-130, travelling from Lagos to Portugal, was forced to land in Burkina Faso.

Burkinabe authorities described the landing as an ‘’unfriendly act carried out in defiance of international law’’ in a statement that evening. But the Nigerian air force said technical problems had forced the plane to divert to the nearest airport “in line with standard safety procedures and international aviation protocols.”

That the landing came within 24 hours of Nigerian troops helping to thwart a coup attempt in Benin, which borders Nigeria and Burkina Faso, was enough to frighten the junta in Ouagadougou and spur torrents of conspiracy theories.  Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger officially broke away from the ECOWAS regional bloc in January, forming a military alliance. They now belong to a new bloc known as the Alliance of Sahel States.

As ECOWAS Chairman in 2023, President Tinubu had, in a moment of indiscretion, threatened to use military forces from ECOWAS countries to invade the three countries, remove their military leaders and reinstate the deposed democratically elected civilian governments.

The threats created panic in the subregion, frightened the new military regimes and forced them to break away from ECOWAS. It was Tinubu’s first diplomatic crisis since he assumed office as Nigerian leader. Many more were to come. There have been reports of severe underfunding in foreign missions, negative impacts of the non-availability of ambassadors, the president’s frequent travels and managing Nigeria’s reputation amid mounting economic and security problems.

The President’s firm stand against the military juntas in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso was met with a less cohesive West African response, weakening ECOWAS and challenging Nigeria’s traditional leadership role in the subregion.

With the detention of the Nigerian air force personnel and their plane, the Burkinabe authorities are essentially exacting revenge against Nigeria and thumping their nose at President Tinubu. Capt. Ibrahim Traore, 37, has not forgiven President Tinubu for leading ECOWAS to issue those threats and imposing a raft of sanctions after Traore deposed President Paul-Henri Sandaogo on September 30, 2022.  Burkina Faso is spoiling for a serious diplomatic squabble with Nigeria. I will not be surprised if Traore asks the Nigerian government to apologise to him.

This is not the time for the Nigerian leader to dawdle as usual. Tinubu should be prepared to handle this with all the deftness and skills he can muster. He needs help from other West African leaders and the African Union (AU) to resolve this and secure the release of our soldiers and aircraft. He cannot afford to treat this with the same type of levity and casualness with which he handled our security challenges before Donald Trump posted his “guns-a-blazing” threat on November 1.

Nyesom Wike celebrated his 58th birthday on Friday, but immersed in huge political turmoil, he has no reason to cheer. Days before, the Speaker of the Rivers House of Assembly and 16 other members, as well as Gov. Sim Fubara, had defected to APC, leaving the FCT minister practically all by himself in his own faction of the PDP. Of course, Wike will eventually move to the APC, expectedly within the first quarter of 2026, but for now, he’s facing a big political dilemma. If he defects now, the PDP would breathe a sigh of relief and begin to rebuild and prepare in earnest for the 2027 elections.

That means Wike’s job, which was to kill the PDP, would not have been done. But if, on the other hand, he lingers a while and continues to make trouble for the Tanimu Turaki-led NWC, Fubara will have enough space and opportunity to consolidate as the leader of the APC in Rivers State. The other day, Fubara had exclaimed to a crowd that “I am the number one person in APC in Rivers State,” announcing that his agenda was to work for the reelection of President Tinubu.

Do not forget that Wike has, actually, been expelled from the PDP, and INEC has recognised that. The FCT minister is, in practical terms, no longer a useful political tool for the Tinubu strategists. The game is up!

Business Day

The Nigerian oil and gas sector has been thrown into fresh controversy as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission has declared that it will investigate a petition lodged against the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, by the Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote.

Dangote, in a petition submitted on December 16, 2025, through his lawyer, Ogwu Onoja (SAN), called on the ICPC to investigate, prosecute, and potentially arrest Ahmed over allegations of corruption and financial impropriety. The petition claims that Ahmed spent more than $7m on the education of his four children in Switzerland, reportedly paid upfront for a six-year period, without any lawful source of income to justify such expenditure.

“That Engr Farouk Ahmed has grossly abused his office contrary to the extant provisions of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers and, by so doing, enmeshed himself in monumental corruption and unlawful spending of public funds running into millions of dollars.

“That Engr. Farouk Ahmed spent, without evidence of lawful means of income, a humongous sum of over $7m of public funds on the education of his four children in different schools in Switzerland for a period of six years upfront,” the petition stated.

Dangote named the children and the Swiss schools they attend, providing the alleged amounts paid for each to enable verification by the ICPC. He further accused Ahmed of diverting public funds for personal gain through the instrumentality of the NMDPRA, an action the billionaire businessman claims has fuelled public outrage and recent protests by civil society groups.

“It is without doubt that the above facts in relation to abuse of office, breach of the Code of Conduct for public officers, corrupt enrichment and embezzlement are gross acts of corrupt practices for which your Commission is statutorily empowered under Section 19 of the ICPC Act to investigate and prosecute,” Dangote said.

Dangote added that successful prosecution under the law could result in a five-year prison sentence without the option of a fine. He alleged that Ahmed had enriched himself with taxpayers’ money meant for public use, diverting it for private purposes, which he said undermined public trust in Nigeria’s petroleum sector.

Reacting to the petition, the ICPC spokesperson, John Odey, confirmed its receipt. He said, “The ICPC wishes to confirm that it received a formal petition today, Tuesday, December 16, 2025, from Alhaji Aliko Dangote through his lawyer. The petition is against the CEO of the NMDPRA, Alhaji Farouk Ahmed. The ICPC wishes to state that the petition will be duly investigated.”

A coalition of 40 lawyers under the aegis of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy and Anti-Corruption has condemned the corruption allegations leveled against Ahmed as baseless, describing Dangote’s claims as a malicious media trial aimed at unjustly portraying Ahmed as guilty without due process.

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Emeka Okafor, National Coordinator, and Barrister Mohammed Bello, Secretary, said the allegations, including claims of $5m spent on Ahmed’s children’s education in Switzerland, were reckless fabrications unsupported by facts or evidence.

Okafor emphasised that the NMDPRA boss’s regulatory efforts were in the national interest, aimed at dismantling monopolistic practices and promoting investor participation in the petroleum sector.

“This is a clear attempt at a media conviction of a public officer who has not been investigated, charged, or found guilty by any competent authority,” Okafor said.

The lawyers warned that such tactics could discourage local and foreign investors, particularly at a time when President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is focused on economic revitalisation. They stressed that any grievances should be addressed through lawful institutional channels rather than media campaigns.

“If indeed there were genuine concerns, the proper course of action would have been to submit a petition to relevant anti-corruption agencies for investigation, not a trial by media,” said Barrister Bello.

Students, CSOs react

The National Association of Nigerian Students also decried what it described as a media smear campaign against Ahmed. In a statement signed jointly by Samson Ajasa and Mr Humphrey Jonathan, NANS stressed that NMDPRA is a statutory regulatory body that must never be coerced, intimidated, or blackmailed to serve individual or corporate interests.

NANS noted that while it had supported the Dangote Refinery during operational challenges, it drew a firm line against character assassination and reputational attacks against credible public servants.

“The recent actions and allegations directed at Farouk Ahmed, a man of proven integrity, professionalism, and service to the nation, are totally unacceptable to Nigerian students and civil society groups,” the statement read.

NANS called on Dangote Refinery to engage regulatory bodies and government institutions through established legal and administrative frameworks instead of media campaigns that could undermine public confidence and national stability.

The students’ association commended Ahmed and the NMDPRA for transparency in publishing regulatory reports and urged collaboration between regulators and investors to support national development.

Over 50 civil society organisations also dismissed Dangote’s allegations as false, unfounded, and unsupported by evidence. Speaking on behalf of the coalition, Comrade Ibrahim Bello, National Coordinator of the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity, said the organisations had conducted internal reviews and found no basis for the corruption claims against Ahmed.