Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the president of the Dangote Group, claimed on Sunday that Farouk Ahmed, the chief executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, paid roughly $5 million for his four children’s secondary school education in Switzerland. He demanded a thorough investigation and an explanation in public.
Dangote accused Ahmed of economic sabotage and demanded that he go before the Code of Conduct Tribunal to explain to Nigerians how he allegedly raised $5 million for his children’s tuition.
According to our correspondent, the NMDPRA rejected a similar accusation after a group objected to Ahmed spending more than $5.5 million on his four children’s overseas education, claiming that the sum was blatantly at odds with a public official’s salary.
In response, the NMDPRA refuted all of the accusations in July, characterising them as a planned smear effort founded on untrue accusations against Ahmed and its leadership.
At a news conference at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, Dangote reiterated the accusation and went into great detail about what he called regulatory shortcomings and purported corruption in the downstream petroleum industry.
Dangote emphasised that he was communicating concerns that were brought to his attention, but he also maintained that the accusation would continue to erode investor confidence and public trust if it went unanswered.
He said, “I’ve actually had people making complaints about a regulator who has actually put his children in secondary school.
“And that secondary school education, which is six years, four of them cost Nigeria $5m. I mean, you cannot imagine somebody paying $5m for educating four children.”
Dangote stated that it was challenging to square the purported spending with earnings from public service, and that tax authorities would typically take notice of such a situation.
“When you look at his income, his income does not match paying this kind of fee. And even if it’s me paying $5m for six years for my four children, the taxman has to look at my taxes and how much I pay,” he stated.
The billionaire businessman stressed he was particularly troubled by the contrast between the alleged expenditure and the hardship faced by ordinary Nigerians.
“From Sokoto, where he comes from, people are struggling to pay N100,000 for school fees. A lot of children are at home, not going to school, because of N100,000. I cannot understand why somebody who has worked all his life in government, and he has four children whose school fees he has paid $5m for,” he added.
Dangote emphasised that his own children did not attend secondary schools abroad, saying, “Even my own children, they didn’t go to those schools. My children went to a Nigerian secondary school. They didn’t go outside Nigeria to attend secondary school.
“I am not calling for his removal, but for a proper investigation. He should be required to account for his actions and demonstrate that he has not compromised his position to the detriment of Nigerians. What is happening amounts to economic sabotage.
“The Code of Conduct Bureau, or any other body deemed appropriate by the government, can investigate the matter. If he denies it, I will not only publish what he paid as tuition in those secondary schools, but I will also take legal steps to compel the schools to disclose the payments made by Farouk.”
He said that entrenched interests exist that profit from fuel imports at the price of national growth and that the downstream petroleum sector is severely strained.
Dangote warned that enabling merchants to influence regulation would compromise the integrity of the industry and emphasised the need for a clear separation between commercial interests and regulatory monitoring.
Even though fuel importers lose money, he insisted that domestic refining would ultimately benefit Nigerians. Dangote stated that the company was working nonstop to make sure that recent gantry price reductions were fully represented at the retail level and that he would not give up on ensuring that Nigerians benefit from local refining.
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