31 marginal fields are on the auction block; but who gets what will depend on the shifting political equation ahead of legislative and presidential elections in 2015.
A sinister plot to factionalize and destabilize the opposition ahead of next year’s legislative and presidential elections involving the long-running practice of using oil blocks in shady quid pro quo vote-buying deals in party leadership contests is now being fine-tuned in the presidency, Huhuonline.com has learnt from Aso Rock sources. Having lost the numbers game with the defection of 37 PDP lawmakers to the APC; and with more defections to follow in the Senate, President Goodluck Jonathan is facing the battle for his own political survival on two main fronts: within his own party where some northerners and southern hardliners are opposed to his re-election, and in the general election itself where the deck is stacked in favor of an eventual APC candidate.
Jonathan has therefore decided to wield the carrot and the big stick, by going back to the form book of his predecessors. Huhuonline.com learnt from presidential sources that the strategy involves using oil blocks to woo prominent APC chieftains like Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande, Governor Rotimi Amaechi and other top-notch opposition leaders such as Nasir El-Rufai and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who could stand in the way of Jonathan’s 2015 presidential ambitions. For added advantage, the anti-graft agencies will be on standby; ready to harass the opposition chieftains, most of whom are former barons of the regime with skeletons in their cupboards that could be exhumed by the EFCC.
The source noted that the primary target are the “older generation and former PDP members; they are politicians with clout who have built a formidable following in their domain. They have name recognition and will see reason in supporting Jonathan, the devil they know against moving into uncharted territory or being part of complex inconsequential political arrangements in the APC with doubtful outcomes.” The source also added that Tinubu is the first APC bigwig who has been proposed oil blocks since he is already an oilman with his company Oando. The source further explained that Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) essentially engineered the initial merger, with Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s moribund Congress for Progressive Change making them the principal leaders of the APC. The PDP will orchestrate a schism over Buhari’s long-standing ambition to be president as a justification for Tinubu and his followers to back out of the APC and back Jonathan for the presidency.
The lynchpin in the plot is the almighty Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke who officially announced last November 28 that 31 marginal fields were to be put on the market at the same time, the Nigeria Petroleum Development Corporation (NPDC) announced it is selling its operatorship rights on several blocks that Royal Dutch Shell is auctioning off in the Niger Delta as part of its divestment program. Although Alison-Madueke claims the transactions will unfold in full transparency, the fact that elections are looming large has triggered much behind-the-scenes horse trading within the PDP and its rambling army of hardcore adherents and desperate power seekers, including dissenters like Babangida Aliyu and his Jigawa State counterpart, Sule Lamido; influential actors within the PDP, who are players with deep knowledge of political foot-shuffling. This issue of oil blocks was discussed when Aliyu and Lamido met with Jonathan at the villa last weekend.
The strategy went into full throttle when the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) last month began show-casing the oil fields in question in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kaduna and Abuja; without publishing the lists of permits. The first pre-qualification round will be held in January and firms chosen to bid will have until early March to submit their technical and financial offers and the winners would be known by April. Companies involved must be at least 51% owned by Nigerians and none will be able to bid for more than three fields. But the information has been kept secret and circulated only among companies with very high political connections such as Talaveras, Petrobay, Seplat and the Transcorp conglomerate. Some of the companies, indeed, have already told the DPR what oil fields they are interested in and even went further saying how much they’re willing to pay. Among the 31 fields on the list, a copy of which was obtained by Huhuonline.com include: the Egbolom field on OML 23 that was previously operated by Shell in Rivers state; the Uzuaku field on OML 11 in Ogoniland; three offshore fields on OML 100 (Usoro, Ikong Ibiom) and two on OML 67 (Amaniba and Ekpat).
In addition to these insiders, other pre-qualified companies include Glencore E&P in conjunction with Nigeria’s Yinka Folawiyo and Nestoil; and South Atlantic Petroleum owned by former defence minister Theophilus Danjuma in conjunction with Russian firms Vertex and Pamplona. Huhuonline.com learnt that for all his efforts keeping Jonathan’s second term bid alive, PDP Chairman Bamanga Tukur will get an oil block through his son-in-law, Sheriff, who is married to Tukur’s daughter born with his 4th wife, Mariam, an Ijaw like Jonathan. Sheriff is the son of Bola Shagaya, one of Nigeria’s wealthiest women and a close friend and confidant of Jonathan’s wife, Patience; who is involved in Bayelsa Oil Company, Britain’s Heritage Oil partner in the brand new JV Petrobay Energy; through which Heritage is expected to win several Shell fields in the Niger Delta, including the oil-rich OML 29 in Bayelsa state.
In the race to buy Shell's stakes on OML 18, 24, 25 and 29, the NPDC is an invisible referee and player at the same time. Counting on his connections, Sheriff is expected to win not only Shell's fields but also the status of operator on them. Following Shell's departure, that role would theoretically fall to the NPDC. But NPDC recovered operatorship of three permits last year (OML 30, 40 and 42) which Jonathan hopes to use as carrots to secure re-election in 2015. The recipients of these oil blocks will then sell them to foreign partners and pocket their commissions running into millions of dollars.
Oilmen wheeling and dealing
Amongst the most notable allocation of oil blocks include OML 110 awarded in 1996 by Gen. Sani Abacha to Cavendish Petroleum owned by Alhaji Mai Daribe, the Borno Patriarch. With an estimated 500 million barrels of oil, this block is worth $50 billion in reserves using average benchmark of $100 per barrel. Abacha also awarded OPL 246 which produces 300,000 bpd to Sapetro owned by Theophilus Danjuma in 1998. This block was so lucrative that Sapetro divested its investment for $1 billion. In 1999, Abdulsalami Abubakar awarded OML 112 and OML 117 to Amni Int. Petroleum Development Company owned by his in-law, Colonel Sani Bello. Amni runs Afren plc and Vitol. Afren and Vitol operate Ebok oil fields in OML 67 with 300,000 bpd owned by Babangida’s in-law Alhaji Mohammed Indimi, from Niger state. Former Oil Minister and OPEC chairman, Rilwanu Lukman, also has stakes in all these companies.
Seplat Petroleum owned by Prince Nasiru Ado Bayero, cousin to Central Bank Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi operates the Asu Okpu/Umutu fields with a capacity of 300,000 bpd which translates to $30 million daily at a benchmark of $100 per barrel. Bayero also has stakes in Intel owned by Atiku and late former President Yar’Adua. The most controversial block was OML 245 worth over $20 billion awarded by Abacha to Malabu Oil & Gas owned by his Oil Minister Dan Etete. In 2001, Atiku got Obasanjo to revoke the license but Etete was later paid over $1 million in a shady deal involving Jonathan in 2011.
Obasanjo awarded OPL 233 and 289 to Cleanwater Consortium, comprising Cleanwater Refinery and RivGas Petroleum and Gas owned by Peter Odili; whose brother-in- law, Okey Ezenwa runs the consortium as Vice Chairman. Baba also gave OPL 286 to Focus Energy in partnership with BG Group, a British oil concern, run by Andy Uba through proxies. OPL 291 was awarded by Obasanjo to Starcrest Energy Nigeria Ltd, owned by Emeka Offor, who later sold it to Addax for a mouth-watering $35 million. Mike Adenuga’s Conoil owns six blocks and exports over 200,000 bpd. In April 2011, Adenuga attempted to buy Shell’s OML 30 for $1.2 billion, but the deal was blocked by Alison-Madueke; who later short-changed Nigerians by selling the block to Heritage Oil for $800 million.
This unorthodox practice which began under Babangida has been perfected by successive Nigerian presidents who discretionarily use oil blocks to dispense patronage to friends, cronies and mistresses without due process. Jonathan hopes to trade-off these operating licenses to opposition leaders who agree to rally behind his 2015 presidential ambitions. Tinubu is believed to control the Southwest which Jonathan must win, to give himself any shot at the presidency. Tinubu is vulnerable because of his indebtedness to Jonathan. The former Lagos State governor was all but certain to be jailed by the ICPC, but he scurried to the Villa and after meeting the President, the case against him was dismissed.
There are also speculations that Atiku has the option to talk with the APC or move his followers in the PDM to raise the hand of Jonathan. It is widely believed that Atiku is keeping afloat and financing the PDM since the death of its founder, Shehu Yar’Adua, to be a stand-by strategy for him as a negotiation platform when the chips are down. Tradition has it in Nigeria that election years are always preceded by a huge sell-off of oil licenses. Looking ahead to legislative and presidential elections in 2015, Jonathan is making sure everything both in the book and outside is being put into capturing the ticket.
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Former Anambra State governor and presidential candidate Peter Obi has disagreed with Atiku Abubakar’s proposal to restore Nigeria’s fuel subsidy if elected president in 2027.
Speaking on Monday at the Nigerian Bar Association conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Obi argued that removing the subsidy was necessary but faulted the Federal Government for failing to properly manage the resources generated from its removal.
Atiku, who supported the removal of fuel subsidy during the 2023 presidential election, has since indicated that he would reconsider the policy and restore the subsidy if he wins the 2027 election.
Obi, however, maintained that reversing the policy would not address the underlying problems. According to him, the major failure has been the poor management of the funds saved after the subsidy was removed.
He said the government should have accompanied the policy with measures designed to reduce the hardship faced by Nigerians and should have channelled the resulting savings into productive areas of the economy.
“What we should have done is that when we removed it, we should have given the people alternative usage for the subsidy,” Obi said.
He further alleged that the funds recovered from subsidy removal had not been adequately accounted for, claiming that the resources were being “mismanaged and stolen.”
Obi said he had advocated a more structured approach to subsidy removal before the 2023 election, arguing that the savings should have been deliberately invested in areas capable of improving the lives of Nigerians and strengthening the economy.
“Go to my manifesto, I said it before, I said I will do it in an organised manner and whatever we recover would be invested appropriately,” he said.
President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy during his inauguration on May 29, 2023. The decision led to a significant increase in petrol prices and intensified concerns over inflation and the rising cost of living.
While the Federal Government has defended the policy as necessary to reduce pressure on public finances and redirect government resources, the implementation of the reform and the management of the resulting savings remain contentious issues.
With the 2027 election approaching, the contrasting positions of Obi and Atiku have added fuel subsidy to the growing debate over how Nigeria should manage its economy, protect vulnerable citizens and use public resources more effectively.
News
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has warned the 31 companies that emerged successful in the 2025 oil and gas licensing round to pay their required signature bonuses within the statutory timeframe or risk losing their provisional awards.
The warning comes one month after the commission conducted the commercial bid conference in Abuja, where the successful bidders were announced for 37 oil and gas blocks.
In a notice issued on Sunday, the NUPRC said the compliance process had commenced following the issuance of provisional award letters to the successful companies.
The commission stated that bidders who failed to meet the payment deadline in accordance with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) would forfeit their bid guarantees and have their provisional awards transferred to the next-ranked reserve bidders.
“Exactly a month ago, the NUPRC hosted the 2025 commercial bid conference in Abuja where 31 companies emerged winners of 37 oil and gas blocks. Having issued the winners with the provisional awards, compliance with the payment of signature bonuses has already begun,” the commission said.
The 37 blocks awarded in the licensing round cover several areas, including the Niger Delta onshore and shallow-water fields, deep offshore assets and frontier basins.
The assets include PPL 2A29 to PPL 2A62 in the Niger Delta, PPL 2010 in the deep offshore, PPL 308 in the Benin Basin, PPL 900 to PPL 903 in the Anambra Basin, PPL 700 in the Chad Basin, and PPL 800 and PPL 801 in the Benue Trough.
The NUPRC also released the names of the 31 successful companies, together with the ranked reserve bidders for each of the 37 blocks.
A total of 143 companies participated in the licensing exercise, submitting about 200 bids for the assets on offer. However, 13 of the 50 blocks originally listed for the round received no bids.
Under the PIA and the applicable licensing guidelines, successful bidders are required to pay signature bonuses ranging from $3 million to $7 million for each awarded block.
In addition to the signature bonus, the companies must provide the required guarantees, pay first-year rents and fulfil other post-award obligations within the prescribed period.
Failure to satisfy these requirements will result in the forfeiture of the affected company's bid guarantee and the revocation of its provisional award. The block will then be offered to the designated reserve bidder.
The NUPRC Chief Executive Officer, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, had previously urged the successful bidders to complete their payments promptly and move ahead with the development of their awarded assets.
The commission has advised bidders, industry stakeholders and members of the public to consult the 2025 Licensing Round portal for additional information on the awards and compliance requirements.
Under the applicable PIA framework, successful bidders have 90 days from the issuance of their provisional awards to complete the required payments and other conditions.
With the provisional awards issued following the July 21, 2026 commercial bid conference, the 90-day compliance period expires on October 19, 2026.
As of August 23, 2026, 33 days of the 90-day period have elapsed, leaving 57 days for the successful companies to complete their statutory obligations.
Companies that fail to pay their signature bonuses and first-year rents within the deadline risk losing both their bid guarantees and the provisional awards. The affected blocks would subsequently be reassigned to the respective reserve bidders in line with the licensing rules.
The NUPRC's latest notice therefore signals that the successful bidders have entered the final stages of the award process, with compliance now required before the provisional awards can progress toward full development of the assets.
Business
In The Spotlight
Vanguard recently published pathetic pictures of the Benin-Sapele-Warri Expressway; and Punch revealed to us what happens to the Lagos-Calabar Expressway, not even 15 per cent completed, each time there is a heavy downpour in the Lekki peninsula.
The road becomes so flooded, it becomes barely usable. Morning shows the day. If Tinubu-Umahi’s legacy road already shows evidence of long-term stress, pity the Nigerians who will ply that road ten years from now.
The Minister was in Lagos State recently, half-begging, half attempting to blackmail Governor Sanwo-Olu to cough up funds to repair the mistakes made by Engineer Umahi and the contractors who hastily embarked on the road without Environmental Impact Assessment. He is building in Lagos and coastal states the sort of rickety roads he left in Ebonyi State. He has the right President for that sort of shoddy business. Right now, parts of the road have been vandalized – even before completion. Fellow Nigerians are not paying attention as they should. Pity.
Vanguard, Punch and Daily Trust have been doing Nigerians a favour by pointing to one of the greatest failures of the Tinubu administration – the maintenance of federal highways under Minister David Umahi – whose major achievement in three years had been attracting attention to himself through a scandal involving homicide. On the whole, Nigerian roads, federal and state, have not been receiving the attention they deserve in the last eleven years; the neglect just got worse.
Experience on Nigerian roads from 1974-2019
“Hit the road, Jack”. Advice from my Sales Manager, in Boston, USA, 1968.
My first full time job was in selling. It was as a salesman for a leading pharmaceutical company, Lederle Laboratories, in 1968, that Mr. Al, for Albert, Abby, came into my life. As my Sales Manager, he monitored my activities and also as my mentor. He drilled into my head the idea that a salesman’s work consists of being on the road as much as possible; in order to meet customers. By the time I arrived in Nigeria, in 1974, to start work as the Marketing Manager of Abbott Laboratories, marketers of SIMILAC baby food, being on the road 70 per cent of the time had become routine. It was new to my sales staff, but proved rewarding for all concerned – company, staff and especially me.
Until August 1974, Ughelli, Delta State, was the farthest distance I ever traveled in Nigeria. I hit the road. By August 1975, I had covered all the 12 State capitals created by General Gowon, at least three times; and the trips had just begun. By 1998, after Abacha had increased the number of states to 36, I was in charge of Circulation in Vanguard; and my annual itinerary called for visiting all the offices at least once a quarter. In fact, I opened new Vanguard Offices in Ado-Ekiti, Yenagoa, Abakaliki, Gombe, Damaturu, Birnin Kebbi and Dutse. From 2001 to 2007, I traveled to all the stations at least three times a year. Over 80 per cent of the trips were by road – even though flight options were available to me. I got to know Nigerian roads as nobody I have ever met knew them. Divorce was threatened by the occupants of the home front. There was no major road constructed, expanded or diverted which I was not familiar with. By 2017, the trips were reduced to about 20 states every year.
Thus, each time a new Minister of Works is appointed, at least until 2019, I know the problems he faces. Shortly after President Jonathan assumed office, I published an article titled Nigeria’s 70 Most Important roads. These are the roads over which 70 to 80 per cent of goods are transported every day. Lagos-Ibadan Expressway remains the first one in all respects. I went further. The biggest map available at the CMS Bookshop was obtained and all the 70 roads were identified for the Minister in charge of roads with the advice: “take care of these roads and Nigerians will never forget you”. I wasted my time and effort; and Nigerians have been paying dearly for it. Since then, two Ministers of Works were appointed; each left Nigerian roads infinitely worse than when he started.
Three years of Umahi, more of the same
“It aint the things you don’t know that cause the problem; it’s things that you think you know that aint so.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
To the best of my knowledge, no Minister of Works has been appointed in Nigeria, with the exception of late General Mamman Kontagora, who can be said to have had a fairly good knowledge of Nigerian roads by the time he was appointed. Consequently, we have selected so many good men; but, for the wrong task. Many people, including me, would have protested if Fashola was not appointed Minister by Buhari after his sterling performance as Governor of Lagos State. But, he failed dismally as Minister of Works. So, in all fairness to Umahi, many of the roads in terrible condition were inherited from past administrations. That said; it is also a fact that every new appointee is not compelled to accept the offer; and “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen”. Umahi inherited several death traps; but, like all members of the All Progressives Congress, APC, he also helped to conceal the truth from Nigerians. Now, he is holding the bag; with all the incriminating evidence of poor performance. Umahi should also be excused for the failure to establish priorities. His boss, without consultations, despite all the lies told, had already conceived of a new road – the Lagos-Calabar Expressway – and the preferred contractor was determined, without bidding. The Minister spent his first year defending a decision made without his input. He added his own.
Umahi started out sounding like a “know-it-all”. He is an Engineer; so he knows all there is about road construction. He even dictated that all federal roads, irrespective of terrain, would be paved with cement – without consideration for the impact on the price of cement; which is essential for building construction.
Perhaps, not establishing objective priorities was his biggest blunder. Some Nigerian roads carry most of the heavy loads and require more attention. The Lapai-Bida, the Benin-Sapele and the Asaba-Onitsha roads each carry more loads than all the Federal roads in Taraba, Ebonyi and Kebbi states put together. I could not agree more with Senator Adams Oshiomole who recently carpeted Umahi for lack of priority in his selection of roads receiving his attention. The Okene-Auchi-Benin road carries the largest load of cement heading for Southern States, as well as fuel tankers moving North. Without prioritizing the most important federal roads, we are indirectly slowing down economic development, making products made in Nigeria less competitive and entrenching poverty. In the absence of rail nationwide, roads constitute the life-blood of our nation. They are soaked now with our blood.
By Dele Sobowale
In The Spotlight
How many fake agencies can the Tinubu Presidency go after at a time? When I posed this question in my column in early August, I intended it as rhetoric. The fake agencies and their operators apparently took it as a challenge.
On Friday evening, the ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Aliyu, SAN, emerged from his second meeting with the President in 48 hours to announce the discovery of yet another fake agency, grandly named the National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office and promoted by one Prince George Buchi Nwabueze.
Side note: Because of the length of these agency names, I’ll refer to them by their promoters, who happen to be ‘Princes’. Say, Prince Adeyemi’s PFIFC or Prince George’s agency. Okay?
So, I sat there among my colleagues, listening to Aliyu reel out another episode of an ongoing soap opera whose production studio is in the Nigerian civil service. We were arguably the first set of ears to get the gist, a privilege that comes with the burden of sharing it with the rest of the world.
Twenty-four hours earlier, I spotted the ICPC chairman making his way through the corridors leading to the President’s office for the umpteenth time. Aliyu had since become a standard feature at the State House since revelations about Prince Adeyemi’s fake agency, the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council, first went public.
Draped in a white agbada, Aliyu sounded fulfilled as he announced another big catch, Prince George. Unlike his counterpart in the PFIFC, Prince George did not settle for a spot in the Federal Secretariat. No! He operated from inside the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He was also found to operate under at least five variations of his own name, which is fitting. A fake agency deserves a fake agency’s worth of aliases.
The President ordered his immediate arrest and suspended three permanent secretaries: M.S. Danjuma, Nadungu Gagare and Richard Pheelangwah.
If you are keeping count, you would have counted six fake agencies or actors in the past few months. Four! First came Prince Adeyemi’s now-dissolved PFIFC. Then the ICPC’s interim report of August 6 unearthed two more: the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency and Public-Private Partnership.
There is also the Presidential Implementation Committee on the Alienation of Federal Government Properties, a body created in 2000 under Obasanjo to manage the sale and lease of federal landed assets.
Though now dissolved, its erstwhile secretary, B.S. Dutsin-Ma, had continued operating. In early August, the Presidency directed him to cease acting on behalf of the committee and the Federal Government.
Last September, the Presidency distanced itself from Mr Fegho Umunubo, an erstwhile Special Assistant on Digital and Creative Economy in the Vice President’s office, whom it warned was still acting in his old capacity despite being let go.
Now Prince George’s outfit makes six similar instances in under a year. At this rate, the fake agencies and actors may soon require their own coordinating ministry. And who knows if the next ‘Prince’ may be found operating from the Presidential Villa itself?
Lest we think this plague is new, history says otherwise. You see, Nigeria has always had people who understood that in a country where government is everywhere, the most profitable business is to impersonate it. From the 1980s and 1990s, there are tales of fake recruitment syndicates selling appointment letters into the Army, Customs and NNPC from rented offices with convincing letterheads. Some past regimes responded with periodic raids, tribunals and occasional decrees. But the racket always reincarnates.
Over the years, the ICPC and EFCC have busted fake job-racketeering “ministries” in Abuja that interviewed hundreds of applicants and collected “processing fees” for years before anyone really noticed. The sobering reality is that we have always chased the “Princes” one at a time. And there will always be another ‘Prince’ to sit on that throne.
Also, it is not uniquely a Nigerian thing. In California in 2015, authorities uncovered a self-declared “Masonic Fraternal Police Department”, a policing outfit with its own badges, uniforms and a website claiming a 3,000-year history. It was run by three “Princes” until the state of California charged them with impersonating officers.
The difference is not that other countries breed fewer fraudsters than we do. It is that their systems make the fraud quite short-lived because the list of legitimate agencies is knowable by the public, leaving the fake ones to glow in the dark.
Moreover, if government ministries, departments and agencies were fewer than they are now, there would be fewer hiding places for the fakes.
Which brings me, once again, to one document still gathering dust on the President’s desk: the Oronsaye report. Commissioned in 2011 and submitted in 2012, Steve Oronsaye’s committee found 541 federal parastatals, commissions and agencies and recommended pruning them to about 263. It recommended mergers, scrapping, subsuming and anything else that could shrink that number.
To his credit, President Tinubu revived it in February 2024, ordering full implementation. Two and a half years later, however, the rathole of redundant agencies has only widened, and now fake ones are camouflaging among the real ones. Implementing Oronsaye would arguably leave fewer agencies with clearer supervision and a slimmer cost of governance. Again, it is not a silver bullet. Matter of fact, the report is 14 years old; some recommendations would need fresh legislation. But why chase rats one by one when we can fumigate the entire network of holes?
While the ICPC is hunting “Princes”, President Tinubu is assembling his Avengers. According to the APC Presidential Campaign Council list the Presidency released on Saturday morning, Tinubu will sit as chairman; Vice President Kashim Shettima and party chairman Nentawe Yilwatda will co-chair the council. Ex-Zamfara governor Abdulaziz Yari will serve as DG, and Hope Uzodimma, still fresh from surviving the storm that rocked the Progressives Governors’ Forum months ago, will serve as secretary.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Speaker Abbas and Governor Buni will serve as zonal heads; Oshiomhole will head mobilisation, while James Faleke will return to his 2022 role in election planning.
The media directorate already looks like a special-purpose media house of its own. Information Minister Mohammed Idris will coordinate alongside Dr Dele Alake, Bayo Onanuga, Issa-Onilu, Mr Tunde Rahman, Dr Sunday Dare, Daniel Bwala and Felix Morka.
By Stephen Angbulu