Beyond the resignations of Ahmed Farouk, Gbenga Komolafe, by Ayuba Ahmad
Last Wednesday, 17th December, 2025, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of the Nigerian Midstream and Deepstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Ahmed Farouk and his counterpart at the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, resigned from their respective positions. Unlike in the instance of Farouk, it is not yet in the public domain reasons why Komilafe had to quit.
However, given the background to his action, it looks more appropriate to say that Ahmed Farouk was ignominiously sacked rather than using the charitable term of, “resignation” to explain his sudden, dramatic, and long overdue exit. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deserves all the accolades for his demonstration of prompt and decisive leadership.
It all began with the explosive remarks at a news conference last Sunday in Lagos by Aliko Dangote, the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, with insinuations of gross acts of mismanagement, sabotage of the nation’s economy and corruption at the NMDPRA under the watch of Ahmed Farouk.
In the news conference, the nation’s foremost industrialist and Africa’s richest man, accused the NMDPRA Chief Executive of engaging in policy initiatives that are detrimental to local investments and related interests in the oil sector while promoting foreign oil industries and international trading cartels.
As a practical, overt manifestation of corruption at the NMDPRA, Aliko Dangote revealed that Ahmed Farouk has paid upfront, a six-year tuition fees of over 7 Million dollars for his four children’s secondary school education in different educational institutions in Switzerland.
Going further, the Dangote lawyer, Ogwu Onoja, has filed a petition at the Independent Practices and other Related Offices Commission, ICPC, alleging acts of humongous financial malfeasance against Farouk with the demand that the anti corruption agency should investigate and prosecute him if found culpable. On conviction, the offence carries a penalty of five-year jail term without an option of fine.
Expectedly, Ahmed Farouk has refuted the allegations of corrupt enrichment. In his words, the allegations are “wild and spurious.” He said he would not however for now, go into “public brickbat” but would wait for a formal investigative institution to, “dispassionately distill the issues to clear my name.”
While he has decided to for now, withhold detailed efforts at acquitting himself, not a few quixotic people have taken it upon themselves to take on Aliko Dangote in defence of Ahmed Farouk. There have been commentaries for example, to the effect that Dangote’s allegations were borne out of vendetta rather than altruistic objectives of fighting corruption in the nation’s oil industry.
Among the reasons given for suspecting the motives behind Dangote’s umbrage was the fact that the erstwhile CEO of NMDPRA, had in July, 2024, described products of the local refineries as inferior to those of foreign refineries. Dangote is seen to be on a revenge course against Farouk because he felt that his refinery was the sole target of that negative verdict on oil products refined in Nigeria.
Dangote is described as a vicious monopolist who stops at nothing when engaged in a fight against business rivals. In this context, the NMDPRA policy of allowing multiple sources of importation of petroleum products into the country is cited as a major reason that set Ahmed Farouk on the collision course with Dangote.
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The position of Ahmed Farouk in the unfortunate saga is weak and indefensible. Objectively perceived, he comes across as an unpatriotic scum actively involved in a dubious racket of sabotaging the country’s drive at economic progress. This is the picture because he was using his position to collaborate with both local and foreign groups and individuals whose economic interests were antagonistic to the development and prosperity of his country.
By opening a floodgate for uncontrolled importation of petroleum products, Farouk was posturing as a fighter against the emergence of a monopoly in the nation’s oil industry. Nothing can be farther from the truth. He was simply promoting employment in other countries while creating unemployment in Nigeria.
He was, for pecuniary and selfish motives, perpetuating the economic dependency of Nigeria as a producer, exporter of primary raw materials and an importer of finished products. For decades before the transformative phenomenon of Aliko Dangote’s refinery, Nigeria was a paradox as a large-scale producer of crude oil, but a net importer of finished petroleum products.
The coming of the Dangote Refinery, one of the largest in the world, has for the very first time in its history, changed the fortune of the country from total dependence on foreign countries for its energy requirements. Any actions that aim to subvert the refinery in the guise of fighting monopoly in the oil sector, is not acceptable and should be roundly condemned as unpatriotic.
By taking on the task of a fighter against monopoly, Ahmed Farouk was not acting in compliance with his statutory mandate as the head of a regulatory agency in the oil industry. His agency, the NMDPRA,.like the NUPRC, was one of the agencies established under the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, to, by their regulatory functions, ensure compliance with the laws, regulations and guidelines in the upstream and downstream operations of the oil industry. From all evidence, Ahmed Farouk was not doing what he was legally supposed to be doing.
As it is, the nation is waiting to see how Ahmed Farouk is going to use the opportunity of the frameworks of a formal investigative institution, the ICPC, “to dispassionately distill the issues to clear” his name. We at Neptune Prime will be waiting, like every member of the general public, to see how a public servant on a cumulative annual income of 48 Million Naira was able to keep his four children in a foreign secondary school at a tuition fees of 7 million dollars paid upfront for six years. Even by the official exchange rate, that translates to over eight billion naira!
Neptune Prime is further joining the broad-spectrum of the general public that the investigation into the activities of the NMDPRA under the watch of Ahmed Farouk must be scrupulosity, expeditiously and transparently conducted.
While the public has not been availed the reasons why Gbenga Komilafe of the NUPRC was also axed, the guess is that the government must have as well, unearned unwholesome developments in the agency. Therefore, the response of the government must go beyond mere acts of “resignations” or forced exit.
The demand for a critical, exhaustive and transparent investigation into the issues at stake is hinged on the significant roles of the two agencies as the bedrocks of the nation’s economy. What is appearing now in the public domain, might very well turn out to be the tip of the iceberg. A lot would be found embedded beneath the surface.
Very pertinently, a poorly conducted or shoddy treatment of the issues at stake, will have direct impact on the perception and corresponding response of potential foreign investors in the nation’s oil sector.
The Renewed Hope Agenda mantra of the government in the oil sector should be aimed at turning Nigeria away from being a “contract oil producer” to, “development oil producer.” This implies the transition from being an exporter of oil in its primary raw state without value addition to that of a producer and exporter of finisher or, refined oil products. In this regard, what does it matter if attaining that goal means doing so with Dangote’s monopoly?
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