After Saturday`s parley on Boko Haram in Paris France with some leaders from West Africa,the US delegation, comprising Wendy R. Sherman,Under Secretary for Political Affairs , Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs and Tina S. Kaidanow,Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism, held a special briefing
Q: On the record?
A: So I just wanted to begin with a couple of points and then be glad to take your questions. I won’t eat up all of your 20 minutes with me making my points.
I came here today at the request of the United States Government to represent our country at a meeting called by French President Francois Hollande. And President Hollande, I think, really deserves credit for calling this meeting and doing it so quickly in the wake of this horrific abduction of 200 young women from their school in Nigeria.
But when President Hollande called the meeting with not only Nigeria’s head of state but the head of state of the surrounding countries, he did so to have both the short-term goal of coordinating all of our efforts to, I say these days, bring our girls home, because I think now these young women have become the girls of the world, not just of Nigeria. And – but he also brought everyone together to look at the mid term and the long term to ensure that there was coordination in the region and coordination globally to bring all of the assets to bear to deal with the horrific terror of Boko Haram, to try to secure the borders in the region, to ensure that these kind of acts don’t occur, and to ramp up the development in the sub-region so that there is not a breeding ground for terror.
It was an excellent meeting. I think it’s quite extraordinary that there were five heads of state as well as representatives of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, and it was a very focused meeting. Conclusions of the summit have been published, so I don’t need to run through them for you and take up the time with that. And the United States is very glad to be part of this. As you know, we have deployed assets to Nigeria to help find the girls and to bring them home, and we are also helping the Nigerians out in every way we can. We’ve had a long presence in Nigeria and a very robust, multifaceted engagement with the Nigerians.
So let me stop there.
Q: Is it true that the Nigerian president first asked the U.S. and then the UK to host this summit before he asked France, and both the U.S. and UK declined?
A: No, not that I’m aware of.
Q: Okay, thank you There’s been a lot of emphasis during this meeting on coordinating information to localize these girls, but there has also been strong criticism of the Nigerian army and the way they handled the situation in Nigeria. Isn’t there a contradiction in giving information to an army that one does not trust to be able to carry out a job? So does this mean that if and when these girls are located, there will be Western military involvement alongside the Nigerian army?
A: No decisions have been made yet because first we have to find out where the girls are. And where they are will certainly dictate how, in fact, one can get them home, and there are many ways to do that. This is – if there were to be a rescue operation – there may be other ways to bring them home, but if it were to be a rescue operation, that’s a very specific skill set and not every army in the world has that skill set. I know that there are some training that has been gone on with units of the military in Nigeria to build those skills, in other words special forces skills. Whether they’d be able to attempt a rescue, I think it would just depend on the circumstances.
Q:In the past (inaudible) has released some prisoner in exchange of hostage.Did you speak about this topic during your meeting, and what do you think of this attitude?
A: The United States has its own view about ransom, exchanges, things like that, but this is a Nigerian decision. It’s not an American decision. Nigeria is a sovereign country and its government will make what choices it thinks it’s appropriate. Our views on this are well known.
Q: Do you think it’s a way to bring back the girl today?
A: Excuse me?
Q: Do you think it could be a way to bring back the girls?
A: Well, it’s certainly a way. As I said, there are many ways.And I should say Linda Thomas-Greenfield is our Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, and Ambassador Kaidanow is our Counterterrorism Coordinator. And I want to encourage each of them, if there’s something they need to add because they know a heck of a lot more than I do, to feel free.
Q: The first question I had – it’s two questions that are linked. The French have put a great deal of emphasis on Nigeria’s new openness to UN sanctions against Boko Haram, but those are months away. One of the – it could be quite a long time, according to --
A: It could be very quick, actually. Could be next week.
Q: It could be that quick then?
A: It could be that quick, yes.
Q: And those would be – are those envisioned as a way to cut off funds? How are those envisioned (inaudible)?
A: When you have sanctions at the UN, it does do asset freezes, travel freezes, a variety of things. It depends on how the designation is done. But I imagine this will happen rather quickly. Quite frankly, I can’t imagine any country who would not support this designation.
Q: Sorry. Are you optimistic - I was wondering: Are you optimistic about finding these girls? I mean, you talked about those specific skills, but I want just for you to tell me (inaudible).
A: I don’t – what I can say is that all of the countries that were at the table today are very focused on coordinating all of their information, all of their intelligence, all of their resources. And there are countries like Canada and Israel who weren’t at the meeting today who also are providing assistance. So everybody is focused, and usually when you have that many – you have everybody pulling in the same direction, you can find your way to finding the girls. But I don’t think we know yet.
Anything you want to add on that, Tina?
AMBASSADOR KAIDANOW: No, I think that’s right. I mean, clearly every asset that we can muster is being mustered, and the obvious imperative is to try and find them. Whether and what time frame we would be successful, it’s really hypothetical if we were to speculate.
Q:Can you describe all those asset that the U.S. would deploy? And someone question was it has been mentioned by President Hollande that Boko Haram had links to other terrorist organizations. Which terrorist organization? Can you be a little bit more specific, Shabaab or --
A: So what I would say on the latter question is Boko Haram is its own terrorist group, and the United States has designated Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. In this day and age, there is probably no terror group that does not have some links somehow, even if tenuous, to some other organization. But for the most part, we treat Boko Haram as its own terror organization.
Secondly, in terms of assets, we have a multidisciplinary interagency team that has been deployed to Nigeria. I think you also are aware that we are flying ISR. That’s surveillance reconnaissance. And I met with the national security advisor of Nigeria while we’re here and I’m confident that all of that is proceeding forward as it should.
Q:To follow up on the sanctions issue, you said it’s going – it could come as soon as next week. So was there some sort of progress made today in order to accelerate the timetable?
And the second question: In the conclusions they mentioned this idea of pooling intelligence. My sense is that that intelligence will be pooled at the regional level. To what extent is the U.S. going to participate in that?
A: My understanding is out of the meeting today, which is the regional countries, that the U.S. will probably, as the other countries, have a presence there, at least in sort of some liaison status. But I think those details are being worked out.
Is there something – I think that’s where we are.
A:And on the resolution, they were working fast and furiously last week to get the draft in in final. So it has a 10-day waiting period, and once they get it in final I think it’ll move very, very, very fast. I don’t see it being weeks away. I see it being --
Q: So it’s not something that happened today?
A: No, no. It was already in train.Already in train.
Q: One more question also sort of related to that. Hollande can talk about the weapons for Boko Haram coming from Libya, in which there’s been a known flight of heavy weaponry. The training, to an extent, came from Mali when Mali was under attack. And then he said it’s still being looked into where the funds are coming from. Does the U.S. have any sense or any particular idea where the funds are coming from?
A: I think some of this information is not information that I would talk about publicly in terms of what we know the connections are, how things get done, where they are today. I think that the arms flow out of Libya is a well-known story. There is nothing secret about that anymore, and if there ever was a secret about the arms flowing out of Libya, and great concern and international attention that’s being focused on Libya as well.
There was a Quint meeting in London this week that Secretary Kerry participated in talking about a number of items. Libya was one of them. And we have a very focused, coordinated effort going on with close allies and the Libyan Government to try to do whatever we can, and with countries in the region to try to deal with border security, which is a constant concern throughout a great deal of the sub-region.
Anything you want to add on that?
AMBASSADOR KAIDANOW: No.
Q: Just to make sure that I understood the answer you gave previously, you were saying that you – at this stage you cannot exclude that there would be a Western and U.S. participation in a military operation to secure the release of --
A: No, what I – let me be clear.
Q: Is that what you were saying?
A: No. What I’m saying is there are many ways to bring this horrific situation to a close. When and if we know where they are, then the Nigerians will have to decide how to proceed. Right now, as our President has said, we are providing intelligence assistance to them. He has said we are not putting boots on the ground.
Q: (Inaudible.) I just wanted to know what would be the next step. Do you expect a new meeting by – soon?
A: There was, in fact, a discussion about a follow-up meeting happening soon, and my guess is that will be worked out in the next days, just as people coordinate schedules.
Q: Would it --
A: Probably on the margins of another international meeting that’s taking place so it doesn’t have to be de novo. But yes, I think there is a commitment to this not be a one-off, that this be an ongoing commitment that the international community is making.
Q: Would it be a long time?
A: I don’t know.
Q: Would it be open to Israel --
A: You could ask the foreign secretary. (Laughter.)
Q: Would it be open to Israel or Canada (inaudible) this kind of meeting?
A: It’s not my decision. This is also really driven by not only the Nigerians but by Benin, Cameroon, Niger, and Chad. Really, this is African led. This is not Western, U.S., UK, EU, France led. We have the resources that we can bring to bear, and that’s our responsibility to do so and to support Africa, but this is African led.
Q: Just to connect the dots a bit between my colleague’s question here about whether Western military might be involved, it sounds like Obama has ruled that out for now. So seeing as how that’s not a possibility, how concerned are you about sharing intelligence with the Nigerian army the moment that the girls are located?
A: We are all working together, so it’s not like we’re over here and we’d see something and the Nigerians would know at that second and they’d decide what to do. We are working as a team.
Q: Right.
A: And so decisions are going to be made in a conscious and thoughtful way with all of – we have laws in our country. We have ways that intelligence can be used when we share intelligence with other countries. We – it has to get used in a way that’s consistent with our values and our approach to the use of intelligence. So I think this will be a very thoughtful process.
Q: Is U.S. coordinating the Western groups in Abuja, Western expert (inaudible)?
A: I don’t know if we’d say we’re coordinating –
AMBASSADOR KAIDANOW: I think the key words is coordinating or coordinating with. Coordinating with, yes, we’re talking to a number of the other --
Q: But do you have a coordinator?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY THOMAS-GREENFIELD: We have a coordinator of our team.
AMBASSADOR KAIDANOW: Of our team.
ASST SECRETARY THOMAS-GREENFIELD: We have a head of our team.
AMBASSADOR KAIDANOW: Right.
ASST SECRETARY THOMAS-GREENFIELD: And we’re coordinating very closely with the other teams. And the Nigerians have assigned a senior person who is their point of contact, and they’re working very, very closely.
Q: So you have (inaudible)?
AMBASSADOR KAIDANOW: Our team is multi-agency, mutli-disciplinary, and so you need a coordinator to bring all that together. And so that’s the natural locus. But we’re working very well not only with the Nigerians but with the others who are doing that (inaudible).
Q: Were there any signs coming out of the meeting today that there won’t be any – how do you say? – any commitment on behalf of Cameroon to actually work with Nigeria because these two countries are just not coordinating, speaking to each other, or cooperating in any way?
A: I think if you were there --
Q: I was (inaudible).
A: Then you saw that they were (a) sitting next with each other – next to each other. They were very collegial in the meetings we had. They are both committed to doing what is necessary. And it is – it was quite awful, actually, that Cameroon suffered its own attack on the eve of this meeting. And you heard the Cameroon president say we know this is not just a Nigerian problem, and unfortunately they had very fresh evidence of that fact. And so I think we are going to see ever-improving coordination and work together.
Q: (Inaudible) I think even President Jonathan has said, and certainly we’ve heard it from people within the Nigerian military, is there are fears that Boko Haram has infiltrated quite high within the Nigerian leadership, possibly as high as the cabinet. How is the U.S. dealing with intelligence sharing, knowing that that’s a concern?
A: As I said, we’re very – we have a whole protocol when we share intelligence not only with Nigeria but with any country, and we will follow that protocol.
Q: Were you worried when you heard the President Biya saying that his army generally sleeping the night?
A: Say that --
Q: Were you worried when you heard that President Biya from Cameroon saying that mentioning that his (inaudible) his army is most of the time sleeping during the night and they (inaudible)?
A: Oh, when he said that they attack largely between 12 and 1 and --
Q: And what do you think about – what is your assessment about this army, this local army?
A: Well, I think he was – the point he was making is that they have a pattern of attack that makes it more difficult. I wouldn’t – I’m not sure I would take that literally. I’m sure that Cameroon’s army is prepared to do whatever it needs to do.
Q: Thank you.
A: Or if you have none, that’s okay, too.
Q: Can I --
Q: Sorry, go ahead.
Q: During today’s meetings, were any sort of contingency plans discussed in terms of how a rescue operation might be conducted?
A: No.
Q: Okay.
A: It wouldn’t be appropriate for this meeting.
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Tinubu Meets Bolloré in Paris Over Expanded Investment in Nigeria’s Creative, Digital Economy
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has held talks with French businessman Vincent Bolloré in Paris on plans to expand investment in Nigeria’s creative and digital economy.
The meeting, held during the President’s working vacation, focused on opportunities to deepen the localisation of operations by the Bolloré Group and increase investment in sectors including film, entertainment, fibre-optic infrastructure and digital services, according to a statement issued by the presidency.
Bolloré and members of his executive team outlined proposed investments centred on Nigeria, highlighting the country’s growing influence in global entertainment through Nollywood and Afrobeats.
The group also expressed interest in expanding its operations and local presence in Nigeria, with the presidency saying the plans could support increased production, investment and employment opportunities in the country.
Tinubu reaffirmed his administration’s focus on economic growth, job creation and digitalisation, while welcoming the group’s reported plans to deepen its activities in Nigeria.
The President said the government would continue to support investments aimed at developing the creative and digital economy, strengthening infrastructure and creating opportunities for Nigerian talent.
According to the statement, Tinubu also emphasised the potential for Nigeria to serve as a base for companies seeking to operate across Africa and international markets.
The meeting comes as Nigeria continues to promote its entertainment and technology sectors as areas of economic opportunity, with the government seeking to attract investment while expanding employment opportunities for young Nigerians.
Tinubu said his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda seeks to harness Nigeria’s talent, entrepreneurship and growing global cultural influence to create greater economic opportunities and improve livelihoods.
News
Banks Shut 476 Branches as Nigeria’s Banking Landscape Goes Digital
Nigeria’s banks are rapidly abandoning the traditional banking model, shutting down hundreds of branches and cash centres as customers increasingly move to digital and electronic channels.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria show that banks closed a net 476 branches and cash centres between 2022 and 2025, cutting the country’s physical banking network by 8.8 per cent in just three years.
The number of bank branches and cash centres plunged from 5,410 in 2022 to 4,934 in 2025, signalling a dramatic shift away from brick-and-mortar banking.
The contraction has gathered pace in recent years.
Banks closed 37 locations in 2023, followed by a much steeper reduction of 229 locations in 2024. Another 210 branches and cash centres disappeared in 2025.
In effect, more than nine out of every 10 locations lost during the three-year period were closed in 2024 and 2025.
The figures, contained in the CBN’s 2025 Statistical Bulletin for the Financial Sector, cover branches and cash centres operated by commercial, merchant and non-interest banks. The data were sourced from the CBN and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Lagos bears the biggest hit Lagos, Nigeria’s financial powerhouse, recorded the largest decline.
The state had 1,602 bank branches and cash centres in 2022. That figure dropped to 1,532 in 2023, 1,521 in 2024 and just 1,444 in 2025.
That represents a loss of 158 locations, or nearly 10 per cent, in three years.
Despite the closures, Lagos remains overwhelmingly dominant, accounting for almost 29 per cent of all physical banking locations in Nigeria.
The Federal Capital Territory also suffered a significant contraction. Abuja went from 400 locations in 2022 to 362 in 2025, a decline of 38, or 9.5 per cent.
But some states experienced far more dramatic cuts.
Ekiti lost almost half of its banking locations, falling from 107 in 2022 to just 57 in 2025 — a staggering 46.7 per cent decline.
Enugu lost 44 locations, dropping from 162 to 118, while Oyo shed 41, falling from 237 to 196.
Other notable declines were recorded in Ondo, Plateau, Osun, Cross River and Rivers.
Northern banking centres also feel the squeeze
The contraction was not confined to the South.
Kano, for instance, initially expanded its banking footprint, rising from 164 locations in 2022 to 183 in 2024. But the reversal was sharp in 2025, when the figure crashed to 157.
Kaduna followed a similar pattern. Its locations climbed from 148 in 2022 to 164 in 2024 before falling back to 146 in 2025.
Yet not every state is losing branches.
Delta recorded the strongest expansion among the states highlighted, adding 23 locations and rising from 173 in 2022 to 196 in 2025.
Edo added 10, while Jigawa and Kogi gained six and five locations respectively.
A widening banking divide
The figures expose a striking disparity in access to physical banking infrastructure across Nigeria.
While Lagos had 1,444 branches and cash centres in 2025, Yobe had only 23, Taraba 26 and Zamfara 28.
Bayelsa and Gombe had 31 each, while Ebonyi had 32.
The imbalance underscores how heavily physical banking infrastructure remains concentrated in Nigeria’s major commercial and economic centres.
The bank branch may be losing its battle
The shrinking branch network comes despite the number of banks operating in Nigeria initially increasing.
The country had 32 banks in 2022, 33 in 2023 and 35 in 2024, before the figure slipped slightly to 34 in 2025.
That means the branch closures cannot simply be explained by a shrinking number of banks.
Instead, the figures point to a much bigger transformation: Nigerian banking is moving away from physical locations and towards digital platforms.
The CBN has itself been pushing greater adoption of alternative payment channels, particularly among farmers, traders, small businesses and informal-sector operators who may have limited access to conventional banking services.
Speaking at the 2026 CBN Fair in Lokoja, the Acting Director of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Hakama Sidi-Ali, stressed the importance of alternative payment channels in expanding financial access and stimulating economic activity.
The message from the numbers is even clearer.
The era of banking halls on every major street may be fading.
With hundreds of branches disappearing in just three years — and the pace of closures accelerating — Nigeria’s banking industry is betting increasingly on phones, apps, electronic payments and other digital channels rather than physical walls and counters.
For millions of Nigerians, the next bank branch may no longer be a building. It may be sitting in their hands.
Business
In The Spotlight
Dangote: OPM Made You 36th Globally—How Many Investors Will Become Billionaires?
Alhaji Aliko Dangote has done what very few Africans have ever done. He has built a business empire of extraordinary scale, crossed the $50 billion mark in personal wealth, and reportedly risen to the 36th position among the world’s 3,397 billionaires.
That is an achievement Nigerians can acknowledge. But today, I want to ask a different question. Alhaji Dangote, how many of the Nigerians who are now investing their hard-earned money in your businesses will you help turn into millionaires—and eventually billionaires? That, in my view, is the more important question. Because behind every great fortune is an army of people whose money, labour, patronage, trust and participation helped create that wealth. And that brings us to OPM—Other People’s Money.
Other People's Money Built More Than One Fortune
Let us be honest: no business empire is built by one person alone. Investors provide capital. Banks provide financing. Workers provide labour. Consumers provide revenue. Suppliers provide goods and services. Governments provide infrastructure and an operating environment. And ordinary Nigerians have been buying Dangote products for decades. Now, Nigerians are being invited to take another step—from being customers to becoming owners.
The public offering of shares in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery gives ordinary Nigerians an opportunity to put their money into one of the country's biggest industrial projects. That opportunity comes with risk, of course. Nobody should invest money they cannot afford to lose, and nobody should assume that buying shares automatically guarantees wealth.
But there is a bigger principle here.If Nigerians are going to put their money into Dangote's business, Nigerians should also have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the wealth that business creates.
Don't Take Nigerians for Granted
Alhaji Dangote, Nigerians have supported your businesses.They have bought your cement.They have bought your sugar. They have bought your flour. They have bought countless other products connected to your business empire.Nigerian workers have built factories, transported products, operated plants, sold products and provided services.
Now, ordinary Nigerians are being asked to invest directly. That creates a responsibility—not merely to shareholders, but to the broader Nigerian public.
Don't take Nigerians for granted. Treat the small investor with the same seriousness you would give the institutional investor. Give shareholders transparency. Give them accountability. Give them information. Give them confidence that their money is being managed responsibly. And when the business succeeds, shareholders should have the opportunity to benefit from that success.
Your Greatest Legacy Should Be Bigger Than Your Net Worth
There is nothing wrong with becoming extraordinarily wealthy by building successful businesses.But there comes a point when the conversation should move beyond “How much is Dangote worth?" The more interesting question becomes:How many people became wealthy because Dangote built these businesses?
Imagine the impact if hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who invest today eventually build substantial wealth from their investments. Imagine a young Nigerian who starts with a modest investment and, over decades, builds an investment portfolio capable of paying school fees, buying a home, funding a business or securing retirement. Imagine Nigerian families passing shares from one generation to another. That is how an ownership culture is created.And Nigeria desperately needs an ownership culture.
We Need More Than One Dangote
Nigeria does not simply need another Dangote. Nigeria needs 10,000 Dangotes in different industries.
We need Nigerians who build technology companies, manufacturing companies, agricultural businesses, energy companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies and global brands.But we also need millions of Nigerians who can become shareholders in those businesses. A country becomes economically stronger when wealth creation spreads beyond a handful of extraordinarily wealthy individuals.
The refinery therefore presents an interesting test. Can a Nigerian industrial giant create not just a massive fortune for its founder, but also a new generation of Nigerian investors? Can ordinary Nigerians who put their money into the company eventually look back and say:I was there when it started, and I benefited from its growth”?
That would be a powerful story.
From Billionaire to Wealth Creator
Dangote has already demonstrated that he knows how to create enormous corporate value. The next challenge is different.Can he help create enormous shareholder value for ordinary Nigerians?That is where the conversation about his $51.3 billion fortune becomes relevant.
If one man's wealth can grow by tens of billions of dollars, Nigerians are entitled to ask whether the people who invest alongside him can also experience meaningful wealth creation. Not necessarily overnight.Not necessarily without risk. But over time.That is what investing is supposed to be about.
The Question Nigerians Should Keep Asking
So, Alhaji Dangote, congratulations on reaching another extraordinary milestone.But don't stop at building your own fortune. Build an ecosystem in which others can build theirs. Don't let Nigerians remain merely consumers of Dangote products. Make them owners. Don't let the story end with one Nigerian becoming one of the world's richest people. Let the next chapter be about thousands, perhaps millions, of Nigerians building meaningful wealth through ownership and investment. Because the real measure of an economic giant is not only how high the founder climbs. It is how many people rise because of the platform he created.
So here is the question Nigerians should be asking: Aliko Dangote, OPM has helped take you to the 36th richest person in the world. Now that Nigerians are putting their own money into your empire, how many of those investors will you help turn into millionaires—and, ultimately, billionaires? That is the legacy question.
By Emmanuel Emeke Asiwe (EEA) Publisher/Editor-in- Chief)
In The Spotlight
Mixed metaphors: Eating them young
On this page, I have praised former Minister Nasir el-Rufai for his work in the Federal Capital Territory.
As governor, I praised some of his work, including when he fired state teachers. I also criticised him when he became arrogant and presumptuous.
Powerful people tend to misjudge distance, in terms of how long they will remain powerful, as well as the depth of their relevance, measuring how power, once in the hands of others, can remain in their favour.
El-Rufai made both miscalculations. Following over two decades of untouchability in power from Olusegun Obasanjo to Muhammadu Buhari, he has now spent 200 days in pre-trial detention on ICPC and DSS charges.
This should not happen to a citizen, any citizen. But some citizens, when fate grants them the winning lottery ticket, become Cronus, the Titan in Greek mythology who, to maintain his power, swallowed five of his six children soon after birth.
But not Zeus, his youngest son, who miraculously survived and, becoming the supreme ruler of the Olympian gods and the “Father of Gods and Men, “would exact vengeance.
In power, el-Rufai forgot not only the principle of right and wrong, but also the concept of justice.
But it was right there the whole time: on the flip side of injustice. The truth is that wearing glasses to be able to see arms, nobody to see through clouds.
Last Tuesday’s disruption by political thugs of the visit to Benue State of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, is an early reminder of the temptations of power in a Nigerian election year.
The ruling party controls the state, which is in the thick of Nigeria’s insecurity crisis. Its governor, Hyacinth Alia, is a Catholic priest. Having, in 2025, been involved in trying to prevent the same Obi from a humanitarian visit, claiming that his intervention was purely on security grounds, Mr Alia is trying to persuade the country that his are not the hands behind the crude attempt to stop, particularly Mr Obi, from travelling freely and safely in the state.
As Minister Festus Keyamo wisely said, this kind of menace is not a part of our democracy. Mr Alia, show the world your strengths, not your limitations.
Big news: the 2024 Auditor-General’s Non-Compliance report, published last month, identified over N1.34trn in audit lapses.
It found that the National Cash Transfer Office paid N33.751 billion to 3,295,207 households in 35 states in 2023 with no evidence that the money reached genuine beneficiaries.
The Office could not produce REMITA records to authenticate the payments. SERAP has written to President Tinubu demanding a published audit trail and investigation of the flagged N78.8bn in total irregularities.
Similarly, Femi Falana (SAN) has called on the EFCC to investigate and prosecute officials.
Given that we are dealing with a specific regime of governance coated in colours of ruthlessness, it is doubtful that these calls will yield anything.
The truth is that the situation is worse than what we know so far, and so, I have a different call: that Nigerians pay close attention to what is actually a long-running looting spree of our poorest and most vulnerable. There is a scorched-earth assault going on.
I begin in 2019, the start of the second term of the fake anti-corruption champion Muhammadu Buhari:
The Auditor-General’s 2019 report on the FGN Consolidated Financial Statements discovered that 36 MDAs made individual transfer payments,totalingN15,534,467,561.26, without identifying the beneficiaries, ignoring the relevant budget lines for “Transfers–Payment to Unemployed” and “Transfers–Payment to Aged/Vulnerable Group.” The Auditor-General flagged the risk of “diversion of public funds” and “misapplication of funds.”
The 2020 report is more curious. In the MDA-by-MDA budget-performance schedule, the National Social Investment Office shows: Approved Budget N0.00, Supplementary Budget N0.00, Total Budget N0.00, but the actual spending is N275,010,764,595.02! That is, the NSIO somehow recorded spending N275bn with no budgetary authorisation at all.
Surely, somebody has an explanation?
The 2021 Non-Compliance report, Volume II, found under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs that N54,630,000,000 in N-Power Batch C1 stipends (the August–December 2021 backlog) was recorded as paid but, per the Auditor-General’s own field visits, “was not actually effected to the beneficiaries.”
The same section found N2,617,090,786 paid for the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (COVID-19 period), the Auditor-General recommending full recovery to the Treasury: a combined N58.05bn flagged in that one ministry in that one year.
Surely, somebody has an explanation?
The 2022 Non-Compliance file is titled as Volumes I and II merged, but despite that filename, Volume II appears to be absent, as it excludes Humanitarian Affairs, NSIPA, NCTO or NASSCO, meaning that their work was either not audited at all, or that that specific audit has yet to be published.
Again, and similarly, despite examining the two volumes of the 2023 Non-Compliance report, neither the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, NSIPA, NCTO, NASSCO, N-Power, GEEP nor school feeding appears anywhere, although many other agencies were thoroughly audited.
Surely, somebody has an explanation?
That brings us to the 2024 itemised findings SERAP has publicized: N33.751bn in cash transfers with no beneficiary confirmation; N36.744bn paid in December 2023 without prepayment audit; N4.616bn in unsupported expenditure which the Auditor-General says “may have been diverted”; N350.18m in enrolment payments to state coordinators with no supporting documentation; N89.51m for store items never delivered or logged; N17.42m in diesel cash advances with no traceable purchases; and at NASSCO, N2.24bn paid through 158 vouchers without prepayment audit.
These appear to be the patterns that Nigerian MDAs exhibit in their work every year, with vulnerable Nigerians exploited every year.
But the first challenge is for journalists to track Humanitarian Affairs/NSIPA through every audit year to establish the full carnage.
There is another crisis: that despite all of this, a lot of MDAs still fail to submit audited accounts to the Auditor-General, representing one of Nigeria’s worst accountability challenges. This is a problem that worsened significantly under the Buhari administration despite his anti-corruption rhetoric. According to the Auditor-General, the 2016 audit year saw the highest number of non-submissions (324) in modern Nigerian history: more than double the previous 22-year high of 148. In 2016-2017 alone, 436 agencies failed to submit accounts. Think about that.
President Bola Tinubu is in the middle of a three-week foreign trip, departing without formally informing the National Assembly or handing over to Vice President Shettima, violating the constitution.
For a man who is seeking a second term of office, this is a stark reminder of how little the rules, or for that matter, Nigeria, really matter to Mr Tinubu. Keep in mind that when he headed north, Mr Shettima headed south, to Angola.
The general debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly will begin on 22 September. Mr Tinubu is scheduled to speak the following morning.
At a time of chaos and doubt in his leadership, and in democracy under his watch, he will confront the theme: “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all.”
By Sonala Olumhense