Lots of Igbo fools, including many top politicians, traditional rulers and other misguided elements jubilated when President Goodluck Jonathan was dragged by Ex Gov Peter Obi to belatedly commission an auctioned 419 Second Niger Bridge that will be tolled for 25 years. This president while seeking for Igbo votes in 2010 promised to deliver the bridge before the end of his tenure. Five years later and a year to the expiration of the same tenure, they concocted a PPP arrangement to make the Igbos pay for the bridge through the back door.
I have written an earlier write-up titled ‘Fraudulent Construction of 2nd Niger Bridge: Another 419 on the Igbo Nation’, where I gave a hint that the thieves that concocted the financial criminality on the Igbo nation will recoup their investment within 4 years there with exorbitant toll fees being planned, and the rest 21 years will be profits-and excess profits at the expense of the all wise Igbos. Since the piece was released, I have received far more facts which show that the N50 billion naira estimated as the inflated cost of the bridge is by far more costly. Under Obasanjo, the bridge was estimated to cost N54 billion naira (without the usual due process) and experts believe that with due process, the estimate would have reduced to N30 billion naira. It cost Yoruba man Fashola N29 billion naira to construct a l.3 km Lekki-Ikoyi suspension Bridge with adjoining roads while the 1.5 km 2nd Niger Bridge and 11 km adjoining roads will cost N117 billion naira. The difference is to be probably shared between some APGA chieftains, their PDP benefactors, and Julius Berger Consortium is just a smokescreen used to diver illicit gains.
This bridge will conservatively yield N12 billion annually for the 419 ers and in 25 years it will become N300 billion naira while not spending up to N50 billion on the project. I was told that the conservative estimate to be raked from toll at the Asaba end alone is N50 million naira daily. This translates to N1.5 billion naira monthly, therefore my estimate of N1 billion annually has been termed too conservative. With my professional finance and accounting background, I purposely made the figures very conservative.
It is most likely that the toll fee will be reviewed at least 5 times in 25 years to something above 500 percent and this will give the thieves revenues and profits in excess of N1 trillion naira in the same 25 years. In addition to this excess rip-off of the all wise Ndigbo, all the extortionist Federal Government agencies whose contempt for the Igbo Nation is phenomenal like the Nigerian Police, Customs, NDLEA, VIO, FRSC and Boko Haram will all have headquarters annexes at this tollgate to extort, intimidate and monitor the movement in and out of the South East - yet some Igbo fools are still jubilating. When the bridge is fully operational the tolling point of convergence and exit will afford the security agencies the opportunity of constituting a monitoring spirit to all the vehicular movements in and out of Igbo land and a telnet of such could be monitored from a personal computer anywhere in Sokoto, Maiduguri or Offa.
The 2nd Niger Bridge will be the only Federal Government owned bridge to be tolled throughout Nigeria. Bridges have been built all over Nigeria running into hundreds of billions of naira. Tolls at Lagos Ikoyi bridge has been stopped by the courts due to resistance from Yoruba nation and Igbos cannot be accepting what their counterparts in the west stoutly resisted. Dams, silos and-roads have been built for the rest of the country at costs beyond N150 billion like the Lagos-Shagamu road at a cost of N170 billion Naira yet it is only in Igbo land that a bridge will be built through PPP and some fools are jubilating.
The Lagos Shagamu expressway is to cost 170 billion naira and yet the Yoruba people have not groveled before any Jonathan the way the Igbo over praise the construction of a 419 Niger Brigde.
This bridge was first promised by Obasanjo and some Igbo fools around him failed to task him on his promise despite the fact that the South East voted en-masse for PDP. Later, Ebele Azikiwe followed in the footsteps of Obasanjo and after promising to finish building the bridge before 2015, he just recently woke up in 2014 and kick started the construction of a modern slavery of a bridge.
The problem that puzzles me is why the entire Igbo politicians, intelligentsia and traditional institutions failed to see this 419.
I was part of an Igbo clergy group comprising Archbishops, Bishops, Apostles, Pastors and church leaders with members drawn from all denominations that held several meetings with some representative of Jonathan from February 2010 when he was still Acting President even before the death of Yar adua and we discussed on the projects the Jonathan government will do for Igbos as condition for unalloyed support in 2011 elections. The conditions include a new Niger Bridge, new Seaport, Enugu Airport to be upgraded to international standard, reconstruction of Enugu-Onitsha and Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway. There was a gentleman's agreement, and the group was on the verge of signing some agreements with Jonathan’s couriers and kinsmen before an Archbishop suggested that we involve Ohanaeze Ndigbo since nobody will leave his flock to chase Jonathan around to fulfill his promise. I initially opposed this view but then my voice was over ruled by the more elderly voices.
Since the church leaders involved Ohanaeze in 2010, a proactive demand schedule was reduced to political theatrics and unbridled sycophancy. A presidential aide hijacked both Ohanaeze and the noble demands and reduced the Igbo nation into a fleet of buses and couples of billions of naira under an Ohanaeze Foundation registered as personal business. Ohanaeze, of which I am a stakeholder, is yet to recover from that Foundation used to muzzle their voices. Even the much celebrated Enugu International Airport is another of such 419 on Igbos.
During the colloquium in honor of the demised Ohanaeze Ndigbo President-General, Ambassador Raph Uwechue, at the Ohanaeze National Headquarters in May this year, and as one of the guest speakers at the occasion, in paragraph 15 of my speech I tasked the Igbo leaders on the same PPP bridge thus '' Igbo leaders must ensure that the fraudulent construction of second Niger Bridge which will be tolled for 20 years is stopped forthwith. For our support for Jonathan, we should have a toll free Niger Bridge constructed with Federal Government money, not this private public-private partnershp meant to enslave Ndigbo”
I have personally called as many Igbo leaders as possible on this 419 bridge issue and many including elements in Ohanaeze , APGA, PDP and APC had explained to me that it is difficult to change the PPP model because one Mr Peter Obi and another Ebele Azikiwe seems to have some interests in the multi billion naira 25 year business
This 419 bridge being given to Ndigbo through the back door when even some illiterate NASS members from Nigeria's North is ensuring that multi billion naira dams, bridges, silos, roads, irrigation projects , fertilizers and recently Almajiri schools is being done in their zones by the Federal Government without any PPP enslavement . No Yoruba or Hausa-Fulani politician will accept such nonsense but Igbo leaders, politicians, businessmen, professionals all foolishly accepted the financial brigandage.
How a great nation that produced the likes of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Odumegwu Ojukwu, Emeka Anyaoku, Pius Okigbo, Emeagwali, Chimamanda, Okonjo Iweala, Chinua Achebe etc will descend so low to be hoodwinked by an inflated 419 bridge PPP to be built at N117 billion when Governor Fashola of Lagos State built a similar one at N29 billion is still a Guinness Book wonder.
Lots of Igbo fools have rejoiced over a modern day financial)l brigandage over their future. Foolish Igbo leaders have followed the bandwagon to celebrate a fraudulent bridge. Their friendship with President Jonathan and even all the years the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) sold Igbo privileges to Jonathan cannot attract a toll free bridge. This is nothing but a charm that cannot catch me and my family. Shikena!!
Fools have taken over Igbo land as leaders, representatives, senators, governors, and presidential aides. It is time for all well meaning Igbo, including those in Diasporas to rise and condemn this financial criminality until this Julius Berger PPP enslavement is reversed. If Jonathan cannot give us a toll free bridge despite all our support then let it be. This jubilation of Igbo fools over 419 bridge must stop because an Igbo fooled after 54 years of independence with an auctioned bridge is a fool forever.
Obinna Akukwe
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 |
|
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