Despite the inability of the Federal Government to pay three months allocations owed the 36 states of the federation, President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday denied suggestions that the country is bankrupt, saying those who have been making the insinuation have only been playing politics with an important national matter.
Huhuonline.com findings reveals that the Jonathan administration has continued to fail in its fiscal obligation to state governments. Some state chief executives who did not want their names in print told our correspondent that they last received their state monthly allocation in June 2013.
“We have not received allocation for July, August and September; the fact that we are able to pay salaries is a miracle,” one noted.
In spite of the president’s stance, several financial analysts familiar with Nigeria’s current financial doldrums and who monitored Sunday’s media chat, insist that the president is being economical with words.
“If the country is not broke, why has Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala not been able to disburse funds to the states for the past three months?” one said.
Speaking during a presidential media chat ahead of the country’s 53rd Independence anniversary on Tuesday, the president urged politicians to always place the country’s interest above inter-party politics.
“Sometimes, people just play politics with serious issues. Or how can anyone just wake up from sleep to say Nigeria is bankrupt?” Jonathan queried.
“Anybody who talks about Nigeria being broke is just playing politics out of ignorance. In July, due to excess vandalism of pipeline, crude oil sales dropped significantly, and it affected the revenues of the country, so states didn’t get their usual allocation. That was the issue.
“So, it is not that we have never had enough money. It is not that the government did not generate enough revenue. So, if Nigeria is broke, a senior citizen who comes out to say that must come out to give the parameters. And that is why no matter your political interest, you must mind what you say, especially about your own country. This is not about whether you like the president’s face or not.”
Jonathan also commented on the ongoing industrial action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, offering not the slightest hope that the government would bend over backward to get the youths back to school.
“Crises in developing countries will continue, either at the primary secondary or tertiary level. There was a time during Jerry Rawlings’s tenure when Ghana closed down all universities. I am not saying that is what we will do but it happened somewhere else,” the president said.
“So for ASUU to go on strike and say that government must spend so and so amount is unfair. This administration is the first ever to conduct and inventory of infrastructure lacking all over government tertiary institutions. If we didn’t have it in mind, we would not have taken the inventory. We have started with N100bn. But all these changes cannot happen overnight. So we expect ASUU to come and work with us.
"This particular issue is beyond 2009. We cannot change this thing overnight. We told them, go back and we are releasing N100 billion. This is the first time we are looking into it with serious commitment. Just like the roads. The members of ASUU should look at the commitment of government. We are very sincere. You can't get it overnight. But to say we must close down the other arms of government is not possible,” he said wondering why lecturers from state universities would take part in the strike despite knowing that they do not owe any allegiance to the Federal Government. He said it was time for the government to look at the labour laws in the country.
Jonathan lamented the duration of the strike, and urged ASUU to suspend it in the interest of students.
“It is very unfortunate that ASUU strike has lasted for this long. I want to use this opportunity to call on ASUU to call of the strike,” he said. “They are asking for an allowance of ninety-something billion; and these allowances are supposed to be paid from the internally generated revenues of these universities. Until we get to a point where universities that claim to be autonomous are also autonomous in terms of funding, I don’t think all these will stop, because autonomy without responsibility will eventually lead to crisis; and this is what we are experiencing.
Asked why the government would not just acceded to the demands of the 2009 Agreement with ASUU, which it signed, Jonathan said: “Those who negotiated that agreement didn’t know the implications of certain things they agreed to.
“For example, how can you say assets of the government should be transferred to the government, and universities do not have asset management companies. There are certain things that they themselves know cannot be implemented. How can they say we should transfer assets of government to the universities? What happens to the Armed Forces?
On his contentious re-election ambition, the president maintained a reticent stance, saying his decision or otherwise to run should not be allowed to define the 2015 elections.
“It is not yet time. In a normal society, whether I am contesting or not should not be an issue,” he said.
“If anybody wants to contest, Jonathan’s decision to contest or not should not be a factor. If you want to be president, you can begin your preparations towards achieving it, whether or not I will contest. Anyone who says Jonathan must tell us whether he will contest or or anyone who says Jonathan must step down before he can decide to contest is not serious about the Presidency.”
Jonathan, who spoke on a wide-ranging number of national issues, also refuted claims that the recent sack of ministers was connected to loyalties to the G-7 governors or sympathies for the breakaway faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He explained that the sack was borne out of the need to inject people with fresh ideas to meet his electoral promises to the people of the country.
Illustrating his action with a football team and the coach, he said all that concerns the coach is scoring goals and when that is not happening, he changes his players. He also recalled that he had sacked some cabinet members in the past.
“It had nothing to do with G-7 governors. I dropped the minister of defence before. What of the minister that was recommended by Godswil Akpabio or the minister of environment, who is from my vice president’s state?
“Some of the dropped ministers are from states where the governors are considered to be favourable to me. I always says it is Nigerians first. We are building institutions and not individuals. People should be interested in how government works and not who does the work. From when Obasanjo entered, have there been issues with sack of ministers? Why should Jonathan's own be an issue?”
Denies Signing One Term Agreement
Jonathan also denied ever signing any agreement with anybody to serve for one-term as President of the country, urging those claiming he signed the pact to produce the document.
“I never signed agreement with anybody. If I signed agreement with anybody, they would have shown you,” he said adding that the only thing he remembers is his suggestion for a single term of seven years.
“I was at Addis Ababa and that was where I suggested the single-term. To be more productive, a president should have seven years. But to say I have signed agreement, they should show you the agreement.”
Concerning the current ranting of Asari Dokubo that there would be war if the president is not allowed a second term in office. An evasive Jonathan said he could not speak for anybody, adding that those commenting could continue to say what they like.
On the challenges of electricity in the country and the wisdom behind the privatisation of the power distribution companies, he said generating thousands of megawatts without adequate distribution would be foolhardy. He said currently, his government is not keen about generating more megawatts, since with the distribution, the issue of megawatts increase would be successfully handled.
He also noted that the number of aides of political officers in the country is not the reason for the huge cost of governance, but the bloated civil service.
“If you are a minister, you need people that are competent to help you. This is how it is all over the world. Whenever I travel, people complain that I travel with a lot of people, but I travel with the least number of people compared to some other presidents. For you to function as a president, you need a number of people.
“There are some countries where, even if the president is sick, the system still runs. All these aides of governors and presidents are not the problem of the country but the parastatals that have a lot of overheads. If you decide to retrench now, they would say there are some countries where citizens do not go to work and earn money.”
President Jonathan also criticised Nigerians for heaping every problem in the country on corruption. According to him, corruption is not even the major problem bedevilling the country.
“If everybody continues to say the problem of Nigeria is corruption, then the feeling is that corruption is our major problem. There are different parameters that define why we are not where we are, but even when you ask the civil society group, they would say it is corruption that is the first.”
He admitted that although corruption is as old as the society and almost everywhere, it is the third of the factors militating against doing business in the country and not the first as people are wont to make it seem.
He also said one of the ways his government had been fighting corruption could be seen from the distribution of fertilisers. He also said the country has an independent judicial system devoid of interference by the president.
“I have also set up a committee including myself, the Chief Justice, Appeal Court President, the Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the anti-graft agencies to see how we can tackle the issue of corruption. You say the corruption perception is so high, yet people are rushing to Nigeria.”
However, the president agreed that the country has various challenges summing into insecurity. He identified the Boko Haram as the greatest threat to the country, saying tits activities have affected the country in various ways.
“We have issues in all parts of the country, but the particular issue with the Boko Haram is the use of terrorism and suicide bombers. People said we must dialogue with the Boko Haram and we set up a committee and up till now, they are still in dialogue. Boko haram started since 2009, but the excesses started with the bombing of mami-market, the UN building and the police headquarters in Abuja.”
Jonathan justified the killing of about seven people in an uncompleted building in the Apo area of Abuja, the country's capital, revealing that there was a security report that the Al-Qaeda group was going to launch attacks on cities across the world in commemoration of the September 11 attack on America.
According to him, Nigeria's security outfits became pro-active, arrested some people who made useful confessional statements and led the security to where their weapons were hidden. In the course getting to the place, the security agents met a confrontation from the sect members, which led to the deaths. He, however, agreed that innocent people could have been part of those killed in the cross-fire.
He agreed that the activities of the group had recently increased again, promising that his government would do everything to curb the sect activities as he is personally pained by the death every citizen.
He justified his earlier statement that members of the sect had infiltrated his government, recalling that a judge from Kano State had to be retired and a senator was recently being prosecuted for their relationship with the sect, but said he had no knowledge of the existence of the sect leader, Abubakar Shekau, who is believed to have resurfaced in a video after being declared dead by the Joint Task Force.
“I don't know whether he is dead or alive. I am telling you that I, the president, don't know if he is dead or alive.”
On the massive oil theft going on in the country, President Jonathan said top Nigerians are involved in the criminal activity since poor men cannot export such amount of stolen crude.
“The oil theft started on a small scale and if government had acted at that time, it would have been easy for us. Just like Boko Haram, it didn't start last year. I was the vice president when Yusuf was killed and because it was not well handled, it became like a cancer. But I assure Nigerians that we are working seriously on it.
“Crude oil theft is not done by poor people. Most refineries abroad do not take crude oil from everybody and anybody. That is why we are pleading with presidents in other countries to reject crude oil from unknown sources. You see small boys, but those that are seriously involved are the big people.
Those who export the crude oil are not poor people,” said the president, who was evasive on the questions raised about the Ministry of Petroleum.
He also denied that the Federal Executive Council had become a massive contract-awarding outfit, saying there are other things the council deals with it apart from the award of contracts.
The president ended the media chat by congratulating Nigerians on the 53rd Independence anniversary and promising to honour past and present heroes of the country, including Taiwo Akinkunmi, the man who designed the Nigerian national flag.
 |
|
Gunmen believed to be kidnappers attacked a commercial vehicle belonging to Benue Links, the state-owned transport company.
About 17 candidates travelling to Otukpo for their examination centres in the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) are feared to have been abducted, although the exact number of victims remains unclear.
Information available to our correspondent says that the incident took place between 7–8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15, along the Benue Burnt Bricks in Otukpo, Otukpo Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State.
According to sources, the assailants waylaid the bus and robbed the occupants of their belongings before whisking them away into the bush.
An eyewitness, who spoke to journalists on the condition of anonymity, said the Benue Links bus, which was conveying about 18 passengers, ran into the kidnappers at about 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday night.
“The passengers were mainly young persons heading to Otukpo to sit for the JAMB examination scheduled for Thursday.
“Two people, the driver and one passenger, managed to escape. Incidentally, the passengers were mainly young men and women who travelled to sit for the JAMB examination scheduled for today (Thursday),” he said.
When contacted, the General Manager of Benue Links, Mr Alexander Fanafa, confirmed the incident, noting that the driver of the bus is presently undergoing interrogation at the police station in Otukpo for violating the company’s safety policy not to travel beyond 6:00 p.m.
He said, “As I speak with you, the driver has been arrested and is under investigation for traveling against company directive. I have warned all drivers to stop night journeys, as they would be held as first suspects if anything unfortunate happens.”
The General Manager further stated that the driver took his vehicle and loaded the passengers who were heading to Otukpo after official hours when the park manager, Mr Amedu, had closed, and ran into trouble, so he has been arrested.
The Executive Chairman of Otukpo Local Government Council, Prince Maxwell Ogiri, confirmed the incident, saying that it occurred between 7 and 8 p.m. on Wednesday.
He added that security agents have been mobilized to rescue the victims, stating that the victims are all young people coming to Otukpo to write JAMB examinations.
“It is true, I’m just coming out from a security meeting, and security operatives have been moved into the forest to help rescue the kidnapped victims.
“The victims are mainly young boys and girls coming to Otukpo to write JAMB,” Ogiri said.
However, when contacted, the Benue State Commissioner of Police, Ifeanyi Emenari, confirmed the situation, but said 14 passengers were kidnapped, while one passenger escaped.
The commissioner disclosed that he had already arrived in Otukpo and is conducting the rescue operation.
“I am in Otukpo now with all my team and DPOs who are here in the bush, and I am heading the operation.
“What happened was that one Benue Links bus carrying passengers coming to Otukpo was stopped and attacked by hoodlums, and 14 passengers were kidnapped, but one was able to escape,” he said.
According to him, the command had commenced an investigation into the incident, particularly the circumstances surrounding the journey.
He maintained that Benue Links management has a policy against night travel, but the driver allegedly picked up passengers after official hours.
“We know that Benue Links has a policy and don’t usually drive at night. So from what I got, they have already closed, but the driver, for reasons best known to him which we are still trying to find out, picked passengers along the road, and when he came here, the story you have is what we are having.
“But as we are investigating, we are on the ground to make sure that the victims are rescued,” Emenari said.
News
There are governments that save for the rainy day, governments that prepare for the storm, and governments that, when the heavens open and money falls like tropical rain, rush outside with buckets full of holes. Nigeria, under President Bola Tinubu, has perfected a fourth category: the government that borrows during a windfall. It is a feat of fiscal acrobatics so astonishing that even the most cynical observers of Abuja’s budgetary theatre must pause in admiration. For decades, Nigeria has squandered oil booms with the reliability of a metronome. But this administration has achieved something more ambitious: it has managed to squander a boom before it even finishes arriving.
The US–Iran war has sent oil prices soaring to $115 per barA Government Addicted to Debtrel, nearly double the government’s benchmark of $64.85. Nigeria is earning an extra $92 million every single day; a torrent of unbudgeted cash that would make even the most jaded petro state accountant blush. In barely a month, Abuja has pocketed almost $3 billion in windfall revenue. If the conflict drags on, the country could rake in $30–$36 billion this year alone. And what has the Tinubu administration done with this unexpected bounty? Why, it has gone on a borrowing binge, of course.
In the past week alone, the National Assembly approved: a $5 billion loan from First Abu Dhabi Bank; a $1 billion UKEF backed loan for Lagos ports; a $6 billion external borrowing package, rubber stamped in under four hours, and a N68.323 trillion budget; the largest in Nigeria’s history. This is not fiscal policy. This is a national credit card with no spending limit. Nigeria’s public debt now hovers around $115 billion, and debt servicing will gulp N20.5 trillion in 2026; more than the budgets of health, education, and infrastructure combined. Yet the government borrows as though it were a teenager discovering online shopping for the first time. One might have expected that a historic oil windfall would inspire restraint. Instead, Abuja behaves like a gambler who wins the lottery and immediately takes out a loan to buy more lottery tickets.
The Senate: From Upper Chamber to Upper Cashier
The Senate’s role in this farce deserves special mention. Once conceived as a check on executive excess, it now functions as a conveyor belt for presidential loan requests. The $6 billion borrowing package was approved with the speed of a fast food order; no debate, no scrutiny, no hesitation. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, hardly a stranger to Nigeria’s fiscal melodramas, described the approval as “reckless urgency.” He is being polite. The Senate has not merely abdicated oversight; it has embraced its new role as a ceremonial stamp of approval, a kind of legislative rubber chicken waved over every loan document. One wonders whether senators even bother to read the fine print anymore, or whether they simply check the exchange rate, sigh, and sign.
The Oil Windfall That Will Not Be Saved
Other countries treat oil windfalls as blessings. Norway built a sovereign wealth fund so large it could buy entire countries. Saudi Arabia uses its surpluses to diversify its economy. Even Angola; long mocked for its corruption, has learned to stash away a portion of its oil riches. Nigeria, by contrast, treats windfalls as invitations to spend more, borrow more, and plan less. The Excess Crude Account, once envisioned as a rainy day fund, is now emptier than a politician’s promise after election day. The Sovereign Wealth Fund is a polite fiction. And fiscal discipline is a rumor whispered in the corridors of the Ministry of Finance. The tragedy is not that Nigeria is poor. The tragedy is that Nigeria is mismanaged.
The revised N68.323 trillion budget is a monument to fiscal optimism. It allocates N15.8 trillion to debt servicing; N15.4 trillion to recurrent expenditure, and N32.2 trillion to capital projects, many of them rolled over from previous years because the government failed to implement them. This is not a budget. It is a wish list. The government insists that the spending spree will “stimulate growth,” “unlock infrastructure,” and “stabilize the economy.” These are the same phrases Nigerian governments have used since the 1970s, usually moments before the economy collapses under the weight of its own contradictions.
Borrowing to Service Borrowing
The most farcical element of the Tinubu administration’s fiscal strategy is its reliance on borrowing to service existing borrowing. Nigeria now borrows to pay interest on previous loans, borrows to refinance old debts, borrows to fund recurrent expenditure, and borrows to cover budget gaps. This is not fiscal management. It is a Ponzi scheme with national colors. The administration insists that the debt is “sustainable.” So did Greece in 2008. So did Argentina in 2001. So did Nigeria in the 1980s; right before the IMF arrived with structural adjustment programs (SAP) that Nigerians still curse today.
Nigeria’s economy is a house built on sand: the naira remains fragile, inflation is suffocating households, foreign investors are fleeing, debt service consumes most of national revenue, oil production is unstable and non oil revenue is anemic. And yet, in the middle of this storm, the government has chosen to borrow more; at a moment when it should be saving aggressively. The oil windfall is a gift. But gifts require stewardship. And stewardship requires discipline. Neither is in abundant supply in Abuja.
Conclusion: A Nation at the Edge of a Fiscal Cliff
The expanded budget includes lavish allocations to the judiciary ahead of the 2027 elections, feasibility studies for politically convenient infrastructure, and capital projects that conveniently align with electoral maps. This is not economic planning. It is election year choreography. Nigeria is not being prepared for the future. It is being prepared for the polls.
The Tinubu administration inherited a difficult economy. But it has chosen to make it worse. Instead of using the oil windfall to rebuild reserves, strengthen the currency, reduce borrowing, and stabilize the economy, it has embarked on a reckless spending spree financed by loans that future generations will be forced to repay. Nigeria is earning billions, and saving nothing. And it is borrowing everything. History will not be kind to this moment. Nor will the bond markets. In the end, Nigeria’s tragedy is not that it lacks resources. It is that it lacks restraint. And in Abuja today, restraint is as scarce as electricity.
Business
In The Spotlight
On Friday, Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters confirmed the death of the Commander of the 29 Task Force Brigade in Benisheikh, Borno State, Brigadier General Oseni Braimah, and three other soldiers, following a ruthless attack on the military formation. Though this confirmation calmed initial reports that more than 17 soldiers were killed in the April 9, 2026 attack, it, however, ignited a deeper cause for concern among Nigerians, considering the fact that just about five months earlier, another brigadier general, Musa Uba, was murdered in cruel but avoidable circumstances near Wajiroko, in the same Borno State.
The attack on the military formation was not the only terrorist strike that week. That same Thursday, the devastating news of the soldiers who paid the supreme price had not been fully digested when another report filtered in, at night, that no fewer than eight persons had been killed by gunmen, in Mbwelle village, Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State. This was besides the bloodshed recorded in Shanga Local Government Area of Kebbi State on Easter Sunday, where 24 people were killed, according to the Kontagora Catholic Diocese, and in Kebbi and Kwara states, where 49 villagers were reportedly killed on Friday.
Despite the confusion, mourning and grief that followed the killing of these helpless civilians in various communities, described by authorities as some of the deadliest incidents recorded in recent months, the report of the military formation invasion and the killing of soldiers specifically caused panic attacks among citizens and gave a “hopeless situation” slant to the worsening security crisis. And this has become a trend since the beginning of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009.
It is true that Nigeria’s security forces under the current administration have been dismantling bandit networks and killing scores of terrorists. But the relentless attacks on innocent citizens, which have led to the death of over 10,000 people in two years, and the kidnapping of more than 1,100 people in northern Nigeria, in just four months, appear to have enveloped security agencies’ efforts and boxed the current All Progressives Congress administration into a more precarious corner than previous opposition governments.
A few analysts have tried to compare the security situation under the late former President Muhammadu Buhari with the situation now. While some scored the President Bola Tinubu administration above his predecessor’s, others like Olu Fasan, in his article: “Recurring bloodbath: Nigeria is too fragile, too fractured to be safe”, said, “It has taken Tinubu less than three years in office to achieve a worse security situation than Buhari did in (his) eight years in power.”
I may not directly agree with this notion, but I know that the prevailing economic hardship or widespread poverty in the country, despite significant, growth-targeted policy reforms like exchange rate unification, subsidy removal, and fiscal coordination, can be justifiably linked to rising insecurity.
The Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, in a 2024 study brief, titled: “Insecurity takes the lead as the key driver of poverty in Nigeria”, said, “Once a country experiences conflict and insecurity, it faces a reversal of economic development, which in turn increases the likelihood of further conflict, resulting in a cycle economists refer to as doom-loop. By undermining household livelihood activities on massive scales in Nigeria, increasing insecurity in the last five years has not only intensified poverty in the country, but has also opened up new frontiers of multidimensional poverty across Nigeria.”
Insecurity, according to NISER, drives poverty by disrupting and destroying livelihood activities and by reducing access to basic needs, thereby stifling meaningful improvement in the quality of life in Nigeria. This argument can be better appreciated if one considers how many Nigerians have abandoned leisure or commercial farming, especially in rural areas, owing to rising insecurity.
It would be unfair to pin the blame for this lingering crisis on the current administration; past governments were not also able to do much to stem the tide. But the fact that political IOUs seemed to have trumped competence during the initial formation of President Tinubu’s cabinet inadvertently gave room for unpalatable political treatment of delicate security matters across the states.
The Ministry of Defence, according to analysts, was the worst hit until recently, as analysts found it difficult to decode the consideration behind the choice of the two ministers who were initially saddled with such a priority responsibility. Perhaps, if the issue of security had been given the kind of attention it is being given now, from the beginning of the current administration, the terrorists might not have been this emboldened amid international focus.
The result is that, unlike when Nigeria was ranked the Number One Destination for Investment in Africa for two consecutive years (2012 and 2013), other African countries have, since then, continued to displace the nation, owing to a combination of factors, including accessibility and innovation, economic stability and investment climate, among others.
Of the 31 countries that were tracked in the 2024 edition of the “Where to Invest in Africa” report, published by Rand Merchant Bank and the Gordon Institute of Business Science, Nigeria was ranked as the ninth most viable destination for investment in Africa, behind South Africa, in fourth position; and Ghana, sixth. The 2025 report sadly reflected a further decline for Nigeria, by nine places, to the 18th position.
It doesn’t take an economist to understand that banditry, kidnapping, killings, among other forms of security crisis being witnessed on a large scale in Nigeria, can seriously damage the investment climate and trigger capital flight. Any government that picks the socio-economic well-being of its citizens as Number One on its priority chart must, therefore, go all out to first ensure the security of lives and property, against all odds.
That the Federal Government has published a list of 48 individuals linked to terrorism financing is a step in the right direction. That it has also secured 386 convictions, out of 508 cases in a mass terrorists’ trial, is another feat that can deter others and stem the tide, but politicians must, in the interest of the masses and the well-being of the nation, stop playing politics with this sensitive issue of insecurity.
Rather than mock or blame the APC administration for the current predicament, opposition figures and Nigerians as a whole must converge on the need to be united against this monster. However, the Tinubu administration must also avoid actions or statements that could trigger a revolt at this period. With the economic challenges from almost every angle, Nigerians seem to be constantly on edge.
In March 2014, the APC, then the main opposition party, lambasted the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration for trying to cover up its “incompetence and cluelessness” in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency.
The APC, in a statement signed by Lai Mohammed, its interim National Publicity Secretary at the time, said, “A country that has no discernible counter-terrorism strategy that will clearly identify the multiple means for preventing, responding and defeating terrorist groups, including the alignment of political, military, social and economic instruments and objectives, cannot expect to successfully battle any insurgency.”
Now that the APC is the ruling party, and Nigeria is still not out of the woods, should citizens still agree with the party’s assertion? How the authorities handle the situation will determine the answer. What goes around comes around!
In The Spotlight
Nearly 40 years ago in London, I was invited to dinner by a Nigerian woman I knew in Lagos.
She had described the place in general terms, but I arrived at an upscale home with some serious luxury. She was kind enough to show me around, and following a stylish dinner, she described how she had acquired the place, mentioning headline Nigerian names.
I had no reason to doubt her: some of them called during the evening. I declined her offer to share her conversations with them.
It was my personal introduction to the scale of Nigerian property in the English capital, as she described who owned what or lived where.
While my visits to England at the time were work-related and I had little time to socialise, I did meet several teenage Nigerian students whose parents were glad to send them abroad for education.
They patrolled the streets of London in exotic cars, and I thought it was ironic that, in isolation away from Nigeria, the young ladies were often being manipulated by their fathers’ friends.
In the decades that followed, I read stories of politically exposed Nigerians, particularly state governors, for whom the UK was the first address in money laundering.
On a few occasions, I have alluded to that phenomenon in this column. They acquired expensive homes, cars and even gold phones. One, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, fled London disguised as a woman. Another, James Ibori, was tried and jailed.
Keep in mind that there have been about 185 governors since May 1999, and that London is nearly always their first port of call.
It is humbling to reflect on what percentage of this number has, in the past 26 years, sunk Nigerian wealth into the soil of England, with considerable swathes lost to middlemen and smooth women.
Remember: in 2006, the then-Minister of State for Finance, Nenadi Usman, criticised governors, saying that they disappeared abroad just days after receiving state allocations and after visiting Bureau De Change operators.
In 2007, a famous Human Rights Watch report, “Chop Fine,” described the case of Rivers State in grim detail.
The problem is that it is not always governors, as demonstrated by the story, “Abuja on Thames,” which appeared in the British monthly, Private Eye, in March 2019. That month, I commented on that story, which involved the astonishing wealth in that country of Paul Ogwuma, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The full Nigerian picture of capital flight, elite consumption, and political patronage was on display when the Panama Papers in 2016 and the Pandora Papers in 2021, two massive international media investigations in which our Premium Times participated, uncovered how the world’s rich and powerful deploy offshore mechanisms to hide their possessions.
As always happens, no Nigerian lost a kobo, let alone a heartbeat, as a result of those investigations, because in Nigeria, crime and hypocrisy quite literally pay.
And then in 2024, a list appeared of 58 deceased Nigerians with unclaimed assets in the UK, as part of a daily-updated “Bona Vacantia” (BV) list, meaning that having remained unclaimed, they are now considered the property of the Crown.
Related News
Court faults weak evidence, acquits Oshodins of laundering case
Windstorm damages newly built Abuja bus terminal
US-based Nigerian faces five-year jail over $5m money laundering
The Nigerian government does not inform Nigerians about the BV list or the claims process, so those properties are probably lost forever.
Remember also, the case of Nigerian “government” property on the verge of forfeiture in the UK a few years ago. In New York and Maryland, in the US, Nigerian governors and diplomats have left behind a long trail of property issues. In 2012, Alamieyeseigha forfeited $401,931 in traceable assets to the US government when President Jonathan’s government failed to claim them.
And so, the rich continue to flourish, and in January 2026, Tax Policy Associates of the UK published the extensive investigation, ‘Who secretly owns Britain? The hidden offshore owners of £460bn of UK property.’
A report in The Londoner, based on that investigation, peeled back the layers to link the late Herbert Wigwe, the former chief executive of Access Holdings, to about 106 properties. That placed him at No. 7 on a list of “The overseas power players in London’s property market,” with each property registered under shell companies outside the country, leaving none of them directly traceable to him.
While some of these practices are legal, especially on the part of private businessmen, the problem is that Nigeria has, for decades, been burdened by an army of much smaller ants eating away at her. Most of them are pillars of society, either claiming sainthood or praying for it, while the people from whom they amassed their wealth starve to death.
But there is another side: in Nigeria, the Tax Policy Associates investigation, like the arrests of Dariye and Alamieyeseigha and the trial of Ibori, would have been impossible.
“Abuja on Thames” would never have been investigated or published. Not the Pandora Papers. Not the Panama Papers.
Because we are traders. We are either buying or selling. When the aroma of money or power is present, some would sell their very souls. It is why we are where we are.
The system, of course, is in many ways pre-rigged. On real estate matters, we operate a fragmented administrative system with multiple overlapping authorities, incomplete digitisation, and overwhelming opacity. The FCT and state capitals are stories of greed.
This is because the Land Use Act vests all land in each state in the governor (and the President for the FCT). This means that, technically, no one “owns” land outright; one only holds a Certificate of Occupancy. That creates enormous scope for discretionary allocation and corruption, since governors and the FCT minister can grant or revoke rights, and often do.
This is why an FCT minister is a king. He can allocate land to whomever he pleases:
Relatives of the First Lady were thrice removed.
His wife.
Fourth cousins.
Underage children.
Governors, again.
EFCC officials.
ICPC officials.
Code of Conduct Bureau officials.
Girlfriends and their friends.
Supreme Court judges.
Court of Appeal judges.
INEC officials.
Senators.
Top police officers.
Among others, remember the FCT land scam of 2004; the Ministerial allegations involving the current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike; and the 57 multi-billion-naira properties linked to former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami.
Just imagine what a Tax Policy Associates-style investigation of real estate ownership in Nigeria’s big cities would reveal.
Because in Nigeria, power is deployed into service only when we pray in the mosque or the church. Outside that, power is for the self.
And if you can export that power abroad in funds that belong to the commonwealth, to deprive other Nigerians of it and make you live like a king forever, so much the better!
Sonala Olumhense