with

Ben C. Abraham.

THE FEDERAL GOVT OF NNPC

On Wednesday 18th June 2025, while President Bola Tinubu was in Benue State where he ‘found’ time, somewhat grudgingly, from his engagements to go see the survivors of the internationally reported genocide, another event played out in the hearing room of the Senate committee on public accounts. The NNPC, that behemoth of a corporation infamous for incompetence and funneling of the federation’s accruals to other destinations had their day with the committee chaired by Senator Aliyu Wadada. Representing the Corporation was Dapo Segun, chief financial officer who had earlier submitted audited accounts of the oil giant for the period between 2017 and 2023. The accounts which was shorn of details revealed financial contradictions and malfeasance of a mind-boggling dimension. In summary, a whooping sum of N210trn was flagged as unjustified expenses. The bulk of the monies was captured under payment for professional services, legal and auditing, as well as receivables. The panel chairman lamented that while the audited statement had been sent in earlier, the day’s business was for the NNPC to provide details of the humongous overheads in the statement but unfortunately, the new document that they presented was totally independent of the earlier report. The committee members shell-shocked as they were asked the officials to go and come back with more clarifications. Well, somehow nothing really shocks Nigerians any more. A Government-owned Organization whose accounts reveal an unaccounted sum of N210trn in 6 years should be referred to as a Government in its right, a central Government at that. No State Government in Nigeria could muster that sum in the period under question. N210trn in discrepancies? You know, gluttony has a way of affecting the senses; when people have eaten beyond reason, they are unable to think and coordinate properly, to cover their tracks, this is the primary reason armed robbers are caught. The sheer size of sleaze affected the minds of accountants and auditors in the waste-pipe called NNPC such that they could not handle their accounting any better. On the flip side, it’s likely that they came before the committee knowing that all they need do was to package some ‘deliverables’ for the (ex)tinguished men of the red chamber. Shikena! Can someone help me define the Nigeria of today? While I await your responses, some youths sent an answer saying that the country is a scam, a crime scene. God have mercy.

BENUE STATE, A DRESS REHEARSAL?

What we know and what we don’t know about the crisis in Benue State is out there for all to know. It was after the Yelwata attacks that Nigerians rose up in unison to demand account from the Government. Very well, but Yelwata had been there staring us in the face. Yelwata was long in coming and it finally happened. Before Yelwata, there were Oturkpo, Anka and even Makurdi the state capital where gunmen killed about 25 people early June. But the Benue blood ‘festival’ if you may, didn’t start today. Under President Muhammadu Buhari, that accident of a C-i-C, Benue people had it rough. It wasn’t only Benue, parts of Nasarrawa were affected. The systematically coordinated ethnic cleansing and land grabbing spread to Taraba State prompting even General TY Danjuma to warn about the army’s inability to be impartial while urging natives to defend themselves. Plateau State wasn’t spared neither was Southern Kaduna even with El-rufai at the helm. The word on the street then was that the bone-straight ex-General who was president had a filial connection with the Fulani extremists behind the carnage and there was nothing anyone could do. So? So Nigerians bore the injustice while praying for a President of southern extraction who would truncate the shenanigans. Enter Bola Ahmed Tinubu and alas what a tragedy. From creating the Livestock Ministry, to asking the Plateau State Governor to take control of the State when it was invaded by the butchers, to asking the Benue people to learn to live in peace with their traducers, to looking elsewhere while people died, Tinubu has thus far floundered on this point. Some say that he is incapable but I think otherwise. I think that Tinubu is capable of taming this inferno but you must understand that he is not ready to alter his political calculus in the name of fighting herdsmen who are confirmed to be Fulani. As far as he is concerned, no one is beyond sacrifice as long as 2027 swings in his favour. So rather than wield the big stick against the murderers and risk losing the support of their patron Governors and henchmen, let people die while he maintains his support base. By the way, what is the political weight of Benue, Nasarrawa and Taraba States in the matrix? Penultimate week the C-i-C managed to ask the COAS to relocate to Benue when the criticism got higher. Then? Boom! Yelwata happened, even with the Army Chief in the State. What impudence, what effrontery, what sassiness? About 120 people (some say 200) were cremated by the agents of death. And when our president reluctantly went, it was more of fanfare than a somber commiseration with the bereaved. He rambled about being hated and so on, that is after school children had lined up on the roads under the rain to welcome a president who must have to order the police to arrest killers or ask the army chief to relocate to a State before they do their job. Shame. What more? In a blatant display of how audacious the killers are, and true to many prognostications, barely 48 hours after Tinubu left Benue, the killers visited another location, Wannune community in Tarka Local Government Area looting, burning and pillaging while residents fled. Do you need to ask what the marauders want? Land, and more land for their cattle, their kith and their kin. They want to displace natives and spread southward until… Today it is Yelwata, tomorrow it could be Enugu where the signs are currently on around Nsukka and Eha amufu even while the Governor shuts out the media and deploys the DSS to harass critics, or it could be Abraka, Ekpoma or even Ondo and Oyo. The sweep is on and no one is spared unless we rise to defend.

……AND ONE OTHER THING:

POWER OUTBURSTS;

When the President came to commission the first 30 km of the 700 km Lagos to Calabar coastal highway, he spared some time to hit out at critics while scoring himself and his team a pass mark after 2 years in power. He said something like people who criticized the project should relocate to Idumota, a boisterous Lagos Island community known for its high density. He was telling Nigerians that he didn’t care about their views on the project after all he is their long awaited messiah or so. He didn’t stop there, while commissioning the International Conference Centre refurbished by Nyesom Wike the FCT Minister, and obviously basking in the euphoria of having the centre renamed after him, Tinubu again told the Minister to ignore Nigerians as he went on with his good work delivering ‘renewed hope’ dividends. He asked Nigerians to keep on criticizing. Of course, Wike took it a notch higher by letting all know he had land to bury whoever died of ‘jealousy’. He said anyone who didn’t like the ‘good work’ should proceed to the death chamber. Nigerians know that with Wike it is uncouth language all the way. He had once told people to go hug the transformer for daring to differ from him. Power outbursts by our rulers. And while in Benue State, during a supposed condolence visitation, Tinubu mooched about being hated like hell (ala Trump) by people. He nevertheless informed these haters that he was now the President and there was nothing they could do about it. Very simply, Tinubu is advising haters to become used to seeing him as President now and very likely for another 6 years. Outbursts by men of power and in power reveal how much of your benefactors they are. They expect you to grovel, kowtow, cringe and fawn at their presence and never to dispute their all-knowing calculations for your betterment. Is it any wonder how much our rulers especially in the Executive and Legislative arms do and get away with? Find time and meet councilors in our local councils and you will understand why people are weeping for Nigeria. Or have you had an encounter on the roads with the security details of a VIP? Outbursts from no less a person than Tinubu in the manner he has carried on lately is disturbing. The future is certainly cloudy.