Opinion/Feature
Chidi Amuta , Peter Obi And The ‘Obidients’ Thriving Tyranny
By Dele Alake
Nothing captures and portrays the crisis of credibility and integrity of the vast majority of a sectional intelligentsia than a recent piece by Dr Chidi Amuta titled ‘Peter Obi and the looming tyranny’.
To some who thought Chidi was supposedly more cosmopolitan, liberal, less parochial and less paranoid, his vituperation is more revealing than concealing.
In the absurd and falsely alarmist apocalyptic piece, Amuta squanders valuable time and needless words lamenting an imminent tyranny of the incoming All Progressives Congress (APC) administration, which is entirely a figment of his fertile imagination.
What a not insignificant number of Nigerians are bothered about today is not an alleged imminent or looming tyranny by an incoming administration that is only a matter of reckless conjecture but a fully blown intolerant, arrogant, abusive, toxic and insulting Obidients’ (Obidiots?) dictatorship that is already thriving in our midst.
Anyone who has dared express any view critical of or opposed to that of Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, is immediately set upon by the unwieldy column of wild dogs who have labeled themselves ’Obidients’ and constitute a lawless mob baying for blood on social media !
It does not matter how eminent and revered the personality under attack is or how logically incontrovertible his or her submission is, the Obi horde spares no effort and eschew no epithet or expletive, no matter how repulsive, to shred their reputations to pieces and tarnish images carefully nurtured over decades .
Most of the time the only offense of those who come under the ferocious and feral attacks of the Obidient mob is that they exercise their democratic right to disagree politically with a Peter Obi whose rabid supporters have come to see, portray and worship as infallible deity.
Now, tyranny or dictatorship is normally associated with those individuals, cliques or groups who utilize their control of state and governmental powers to harass, intimidate, oppress and suppress opposition and dissent. They are the proponents and practitioners of the one-dimensional narrative in society who can hardly tolerate alternative viewpoints and narratives.
Pray, many have asked, if a group without control of and influence over state power like the Peter Obi clique, is so ferociously against the expression of a multiplicity of viewpoints now, what grave danger of descent to absolutism would Nigeria have faced had their man won the presidency?
That is the dangerous possibility that should bother Chidi Amuta’s mind and not his far-fetched and implausible rumination on a possible looming APC tyranny.
Like I said, many members of this sectional intelligentsia like Amuta find themselves walking an uncomfortable tight rope especially when it comes to dealing with the sinister menace that groups like the ‘Obidients’ have come to pose to society.
On one hand, as intellectuals, they are expected to be committed to expressing the truth and nothing but the truth at all times no matter whose Ox is gored. However, they are, on the other hand, first and foremost primordial, and believe they have a duty to protect the interests of their ethnic group.
It is instructive that there are scores of Yoruba intellectuals who fiercely oppose Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s politics just as there are several members of the Northern political elite who vociferously criticize Atiku Abubakar. But it is virtually impossible to find any Igbo intellectual of note critical of or opposed to Peter Obi even when some of them, like Chidi Amuta, are assumed broad minded enough to have spouses from other tribes.
The sad truth is that the Chidi Amutas of this world are, deep within them, in mortal fear of the Obidients mob and dare not express their real and honest views openly. They thus seek to ingratiate themselves with the “headless mob” known as Obidients so they don’t suffer the fate of a courageous voice like governor Chukuma Soludo of Anambra State who became the object of vicious attacks when he dared to predict last year that there was little hope of Obi winning the presidency.
Soludo was proved right even if Obi performed better than had been expected in the election. But in any election just like in a football match, it is not merely performing well that matters , but winning.
Even though he argues that there is no justification for allegations bordering on treason leveled against Obi and his Vice-Presidential candidate, Datti-Ahmed at various times by Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Ministry of Defense, Chidi Amuta is unable to pretend that there is nothing untoward in the utterances of those so accused.
Thus, he writes that “Admittedly, there has been a few incensed and even careless statements by both the losing PDP and the LP. Peter Obi’s running mate, Mr Datti Ahmed, may have been a bit too emphatic and irreverent in his Channels interview on a matter that should be left to the judicial finality of the Supreme Court. But Mr Dino Melaye of the PDP has been even more unguarded. Not to talk of the serial indiscretion and incendiary incitements of Mr Femi Fani Kayode of the APC. Mr Bayo Onanuga of the Tinubu campaign has been even more vitriolic and dripping with ethnic hate in his choice of utterances”.
While implicitly admitting that Obi and Datti-Ahmed went overboard in some of their utterances with reference to Tinubu’s emergence as winner of the election, Amuta tried to exculpate them with reference to alleged utterances of members of the campaign teams of the APC and the PDP.
Unfortunately, he demonstrates no logical equivalence here with regard to the two instances. The throwing of most times harsh and unsparing brickbats in the course of a political campaign is normal and understandable. However , to not only reject the outcome of an election but also go outside the stipulated constitutional channels of seeking redress for alleged electoral infractions as Datti-Ahmed in particular and members of the Obedient movement have done is a direct affront to national security and stability altogether.
Amuta is unable to cite a single utterance that can even be remotely tagged as treasonous by Melaye, Fani Kayode, Keyamo or Bayo Onanuga. But he cannot deny that Datti-Ahmed asserted emphatically on national television that the swearing in of Tinubu as President on May 29 would signal the end of democracy in Nigeria. He is aware that on the same television programme, the LP Vice/presidential candidate gave the distinct and undeniable impression that the judges’ decisions on pending election petitions before them must conform to his party’s views or be unacceptable. Neither can he be ignorant of the antics of a group of Obidients, most likely taking a cue from Obi and Datti-Ahmed, converging on the Ministry of Defense Headquarters and pleading with the military to intervene in the political process in reaction to the outcome of the elections !
Did Amuta expect any responsible and self-respecting government to keep mute and inactive in the face of such extra-constitutional provocations? It is unlikely.
For, he also writes that “In the heat of the campaign, some fringe elements of the Obidients movement may have overstepped the bounds of decent assembly in response to the hooligans of the APC in places like Lagos for instance.
Even then, with the LP and the Obidients, we are dealing with uncharted territory. A popular movement that finds itself as the rave of the political movement has a capability to go overboard. But critics of the Obidients have hardly spared a thought for the many of them that were killed, maimed and seriously injured in parts of the country by APC professional thugs”.
This is nothing but an elaborate and manifestly dishonest attempt to justify the irrational extremism of the Obidients in response to the failure of Peter Obi at the polls. Amuta makes reference to alleged attacks by APC thugs on members of the Obidients movement in parts of the country but is silent on the several viral trending videos on social media showing attacks by LP agents on members of other parties in the South-East and parts of the South-South, a factor that largely explains the electoral dominance of the LP in these areas particularly in the presidential election.
Referring to APC members, Amuta comically asserts that “Party hawks and attack hounds are still busy insulting our public sensibility. They are berating, abusing and profiling their election season opponents. It as though the elections are not yet over”. If Chidi truly believes this, then he deserves nothing but pity and empathy. An otherwise brilliant mind has become so clearly disoriented by the outcome of an election that he so obviously desperately wanted his fellow ethnic man to win.
For, his misplaced statement about the fictive aggression and violence of the APC members more accurately reflects what most people have come to see as the defining characteristics of the Obidient movement. Even in London, a staff writer of Time magazine, Astha Rajvanshi, has had to lock her Twitter account following vitriolic attacks on her by members of the Obidient movement. Her offense? She had written the citation of President-elect, Bola Tinubu, in the 2023 issue of the magazine’s 100 most influential people.
Chidi Amuta is of the view that “The period between a general election and the swearing/in of a successor administration ought to be filled with excited anticipation. It is usually time of pleasant speculations on the new faces that will soon grace television screens and newspaper front pages…For the elite, this ought to be a time to debate policy perspectives and options for the new administration “.
Possibly yet to emerge from the deep depression that Tinubu’s victory in the election has submerged him in, the writer is unaware that there is already great expectations across the land as regards the possibilities of the incoming administration.
There are already wide ranging debates on various policy options for the next government on fuel subsidy, monetary policy, electricity supply, restructuring and security among several others. The media is daily awash with speculations on which faces will feature as members of the new administration. If Amuta and those of his group persuasion decide to psychologically alienate themselves from this process, there is nothing anybody can do about it. It is their cup of tea.
The writer asserts that the APC is “consumed by an overwhelming sense of nervousness” and that “Instead of engaging the public in sensible debates about policy options and directions, the APC appears to have retreated into a perpetual campaign mode”. More than any other party, the APC and its presidential candidate presented their policy platform to various audiences in campaigns and Town Hall meetings across the country. The outcome of the elections was a validation of the acceptance by a majority of voters of the policy direction in which the party seeks to lead Nigeria.
It is rather the LP and Peter Obi that are betraying signs of nervousness as it becomes daily more evident that their petition against the election rests on fragile and slippery empirical and evidential grounds. Thus, Obi is suddenly talking about his being under pressure from mysterious and unidentified quarters to leave the country for his safety. Surely, the APC cannot be among those who want this. The party will surely want the LP candidate to be very much around in the country to pursue his petition in court to its ultimately futile conclusion.
Amuta wonders why Tinubu “has not disbanded his abusive and divisive campaign machinery”. It is certainly not any member of the Tinubu campaign that has been caught in an audio recording plotting with their spiritual daddies on how to pursue their election campaign as a religious war. It is evident that what Amuta desires is a visceral and funereal silence from the APC as the LP persists in trying to delegitimize an election it lost fair and square locally and internationally. He will not get what he wants.
The APC will continue to defend the credibility and integrity of Tinubu’s electoral victory with greater vigor, logic and determination than can be summoned by those who seek to discredit the election and destabilize Nigeria.
Indeed, the writer also seeks to cast doubts on the integrity and credibility of the election but cannot stop himself from celebrating the fact that Obi “thrashed Tinubu in Lagos, swept the Federal Capital Territory like a political hurricane leaving his rivals no room for even a 25% miserable vote score” and “ swept the whole of the South-East, South-South as well as the Middle Belt states of Nasarawa, Benue and Plateau”.
Yet, this is the same election he describes as massively rigged and unreliable. What contradiction! What dishonesty! What hypocrisy!
Still gloating about Obi’s impressive performance in an election he avers as rigged and lacking in credibility, Amuta contends that “From Nasarawa and Southern Kaduna, Obi and his rampaging political train menacingly eyed the conservative Northern bastions with the force of a powerful political message”.
This is self-deluding political fiction. Obi did not attain over all victory in any of the three geopolitical zones in the North. Atiku had the highest number of votes in the North-East and Tinubu emerged Victor in the North-West and North-Central. Obi won in the South-East and South-South and could not muster even 25% of the votes in the North-East or North-West. There is no way he could have emerged as President.
Amuta writes rapturously about Obi’s rosy promises to the electorate and how superlatively he would perform if elected President. Until he provides the public with concrete and verifiable examples of Obi’s accomplishments as governor of Anambra State for eight years, it will be utterly time-wasting to engage his wild speculations.
Chidi applauds Obi for his feat in joining “a small party like LP and in less than a year transformed it into a serious power contender”. He is utterly oblivious of the fact that by March 18, Obi’s LP’s ‘roar’ in the February 25 presidential election had become not more than a whimper in the governorship and House of Assembly elections. The LP only struggled to win a governorship seat in Abia State.
There is a limit to which you can ride on ethnic and religious sentiments to build a viable and enduring political organization in a complex polity like Nigeria, but, we cannot, and we should not deny Chidi Amuta his delusions !
Dele Alake, former editor of Nigeria’s National Concord newspaper, is Special Adviser to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the President elect.
By Audu Liberty Oseni, PhD
Conversations around Nigeria’s electoral reform focus mainly on electoral laws, institutions, technology, and the credibility of elections. While these are central and fundamental, a deeper dimension that must be at the centre of the conversation has emerged in my research.
My study, “Democracy Communication and Citizens’ Perceptions of Political Trust and Democratic Legitimacy in Nigeria,” examined how democracy communication shapes citizens’ perceptions of political trust and democratic legitimacy.
Relying on qualitative data collected through Focus Group Discussions and Key Informant Interviews across 12 Local Government Areas in Abuja and Lagos, the study showed that democracy communication plays a central role in how citizens understand and engage with democracy. Citizens engage with the core principles of democracy, including free, fair and credible elections, rule of law, separation of powers, participatory decision-making, accountability, as well as fair and equitable representation, through communication.
READ ALSO: How Twins Got Jobs at NNPC Ltd in 2026
The study further revealed that citizens who show a stronger preference for participatory democracy communication are those who have experienced dialogue-based engagement.
This is because participation, inclusion, collective decision-making and accountability are not external to communities. They are rooted in people’s socio-cultural systems of indigenous knowledge used for social interaction and collective decision-making.
Citizens showed an understanding of what strengthens and erodes trust in democratic institutions in all 12 Local Government Areas studied. Their dealing with democracy was conditional. They would be more willing to engage and support democracy and democratic institutions when accountability, participation and responsiveness are present, whereas they disengage when distrust rises and dominates.
These findings reveal central and fundamental issues. Citizens actively evaluate, negotiate and respond to how democracy is communicated and practiced; they are not mere passive recipients of democracy. Despite this, a significant mismatch between institutional communication and citizens’ preferences exists. The reliance of government and political institutions on top-down communication is a dominant practice.
A preference for communication that allows citizens to ask questions, deliberate, negotiate, contribute, and influence decisions was strongly expressed. Democratic communication is seen as more credible and legitimate, especially when facilitated through trusted local community structures.
This has profound implications for electoral reforms. Nigeria cannot achieve electoral reforms while communicating with citizens as though they are merely an audience. Electoral reforms are not only about changing laws or introducing technology. The citizens must understand the reforms, participate in the conversations, question them, have opportunities to influence implementation, and must be able to hold institutions accountable.
This is why this study argues that electoral reforms are largely ‘a communication process’. Electoral credibility and service delivery are not the only factors that determine citizens’ support for democracy. Communication processes that create opportunities for dialogue, negotiation, and meaningful participation in governance shape citizens’ support for democracy.
The understanding of democracy should not be based on its assessment as a system of institutions and procedures; it is also an ongoing communicative relationship between the state and her citizens.
Nigeria must reposition democracy communication from a peripheral activity to a central pillar of her democratic practice and electoral reform. Political actors, electoral institutions and policymakers must champion the institutionalization of participatory democracy. These communication processes enable citizens to engage, deliberate, negotiate and co-create solutions to governance challenges.
If we Nigerians want electoral reforms that citizens trust, understand and own, we must embrace communication. A means by which we stop communicating to citizens and start communicating with them. We cannot achieve electoral reforms without effective “Democracy Communication”.
Oseni, Director, Centre for Development Communication (CDC), sent this via email – [email protected]
By Andrew Ekejiuba
The Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) possesses all the ingredients required to become one of Africa’s most valuable domestic football competitions.
With a population exceeding 230 million people, an enormous football-loving fan base, fierce regional rivalries, an abundance of talented players, and a rapidly expanding digital audience, Nigeria has a foundation that many leagues across the continent can only aspire to.
Yet, despite these enormous advantages, the commercial value of the country’s elite league remains far below its true potential.
Unlocking this value requires a fundamental shift in how NPFL clubs are managed. Clubs must stop operating merely as football teams and begin functioning as professional sports businesses. Unfortunately, many NPFL clubs continue to run as extensions of government ministries rather than commercially driven organizations. This governance model has significantly hindered both the growth of the clubs and the development of the league itself.
ALSO READ: Asharami Energy Hits 6 Million LTI-Free Man-Hours, Advancing Goal Zero Safety Culture
Every NPFL club should have a Board with competent professionals overseeing strategic decisions and policies. Equally important is the appointment of qualified Chief Executive Officers, Commercial Directors, Marketing Managers, Digital Media Teams, Fan Engagement Officers, and Business Development Executives.
All these are necessary because sustainable football success is built on strong institutions, not merely on performances on the pitch.
It has been revealed that most government-owned NPFL clubs rely almost entirely on state government funding despite the potential to generate incremental revenues annually. This dependency creates numerous challenges, including unstable financing, political interference, weak accountability, and little motivation to generate independent revenue. Such a structure inevitably limits innovation and commercial growth.
To become financially sustainable, clubs must progressively diversify their revenue streams through sponsorships, merchandising, hospitality services, membership programmes, ticket sales, academy transfers, digital subscriptions, media content, and other commercial initiatives. All these can be achieved through verifiable metrics and analytics that are attractive to various local and international partners. Government ownership, where it exists, should target direct intervention in key strategic areas and create a conducive environment that will facilitate the accelerated growth and development of the Clubs.
Another significant opportunity lies in building stronger club brands.
Although many NPFL clubs boast rich histories and passionate supporters, their brand identities remain underdeveloped. Every club should possess a clearly recognizable identity defined by its colours, logo, slogan, traditions, legends, and deep community roots.
Successful football clubs across the world sell identity before they sell football. Supporters do not merely buy tickets—they buy belongings. Consequently, every NPFL club should invest in a consistent visual identity, professionally managed websites, vibrant social media platforms, documentaries, podcasts, player profiles, and well-preserved historical archives. Football fans connect with stories just as much as they celebrate trophies.
Equally important is improving the matchday experience. Many NPFL venues still struggle with poor seating arrangements, inadequate parking facilities, poor sanitation, limited food and beverage options, weak security, and insufficient entertainment before and after matches. A football match should be an event that supporters eagerly anticipate, not simply ninety minutes of action. Creating enjoyable and memorable matchday experiences will strengthen emotional attachment between clubs and their supporters while increasing attendance and spending.
Digital media also presents one of the greatest opportunities for unlocking the league’s commercial value. Today’s football audience increasingly consumes content on mobile phones and digital platforms long before watching matches on television. Consequently, clubs must invest heavily in digital content creation.
Media departments should consistently produce engaging content, including training sessions, behind-the-scenes footage, player interviews, tactical analysis, academy updates, fan competitions, historical features, documentaries, and interactive social media campaigns. Around the world, digital engagement has become a significant source of commercial revenue through advertising, sponsorships, subscriptions, and fan monetization. The NPFL cannot afford to be left behind.
Another area requiring strategic attention is player development and transfers. Evidence from several emerging football leagues shows that player trading can become a major source of sustainable income when properly managed. Nigeria continues to produce exceptional football talent, yet too many players leave for relatively insignificant transfer fees.
NPFL clubs should strengthen their youth academies, offer longer-term contracts to promising players, improve scouting networks, negotiate favourable sell-on clauses, secure development compensation rights, and create attractive welfare packages to retain outstanding talent for longer periods. European clubs such as Red Bull Salzburg and Genk have built highly successful business models around player development and strategic transfers, an approach worthy of emulation.
In addition, club licensing regulations should enforce the requirement for every NPFL club to own and operate a functional youth academy that consistently feeds the first team. Such academies reduce recruitment costs, reinforce club identity, generate future transfer income, and strengthen community engagement. Beyond football, these academies should prioritize education, nutrition, sports science, psychology, and life-skills training to ensure the holistic development of young athletes.
Finally, clubs must begin to view their stadiums as commercial assets capable of generating revenue year-round, not merely on matchdays. Properly managed stadiums can host concerts, conferences, exhibitions, restaurants, museums, gyms, club shops, guided tours, and corporate events while also generating income through naming rights and other commercial partnerships.
In part two of this series, attention will shift to other critical drivers of football economics, including improved officiating standards, broadcasting rights, sponsorship development, data analytics, fan engagement strategies, and governance reforms.
Ultimately, the NPFL’s greatest untapped asset is not merely the quality of football played on the pitch. A vast domestic market, an intensely passionate football culture, a large diaspora community, and an endless pipeline of talented players provide a foundation that very few African leagues can match. If these assets are strategically harnessed, the NPFL can emerge as one of the continent’s most commercially successful and globally respected football leagues.
Ekejiuba of GTI, writes from Lagos Island
By Adeyemi Ilori
I have followed Nigeria’s gas story for the better part of two decades. I have sat through presentations that promised the world and delivered little. I have seen feasibility studies gather dust while flares continued to burn across the Niger Delta.
So, when I say that something feels different this time, I want you to understand the weight of that admission.
For years, the conventional wisdom among energy analysts was that NNPC was a black box – opaque, slow, and better at consuming budgets than delivering pipelines. But the evidence accumulating over the past eighteen months, particularly under the current Ojulari leadership at NNPC, suggests that the corporation is finally translating its gas into tangible infrastructure. The AKK pipeline, the OB3 interconnector, and the relaunched Gas Master Plan 2026 are not just slide-deck fantasies. They are, against considerable odds, becoming physical realities.
Let me be clear: this is not an uncritical endorsement. There are still legitimate questions about cost overruns, contracting transparency, and the long-term commercial viability of some projects. But the direction of travel is unmistakable. Nigeria is moving from a flare-heavy crude economy to a gas-industrialised powerhouse. And NNPC, for all its historical baggage, is the engine of that transition.
Any credible analysis of NNPC’s gas ambitions must start with the Nigeria LNG story. Not because it is new, but because it remains the single most successful energy partnership in sub-Saharan Africa. The experiment began in 1995 with a final investment decision. Four years later, the first cargo left Bonny Island for France. That is a turnaround time that would impress any international project manager.
As the majority shareholder with 49 per cent equity, NNPC’s role, among others, was to secure gas supply through its joint venture partners, most of whom were also shareholders. The structure was complex, but it worked. NLNG has since generated over $114bn in revenue for Nigeria and dramatically reduced gas flaring. Train 7, approved in 2019, will increase capacity by another third.
ALSO READ: Diezani Claims Being Scapegoated over Subsidy at London Court
But here is the critical observation that many inside Nigeria miss: NLNG succeeded partly because it was insulated from day-to-day political interference. It had a dedicated special-purpose vehicle, world-class partners (Shell, Total, Eni), and a clear export mandate. The question has always been whether NNPC could replicate that discipline for domestic gas infrastructure, where profit margins are thinner and political pressures are heavier. That question is now being answered.
Let me give credit where it is due. The Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System, commissioned in the same year as NLNG’s incorporation, does not get the attention it deserves. It moves gas from the Niger Delta to the industrial corridors of Lagos, Ogun and Oyo. Most of the power plants in that zone run on ELPS gas. If you have ever wondered why Lagos State’s economy dwarfs that of other Nigerian states, a reliable gas supply is a significant part of the answer.
But a critical observer would also note that ELPS is now decades old and operating below optimal capacity due to maintenance backlogs and third-party vandalism. The lesson is that building pipelines is only half the battle. Operating and protecting them is the long game. NNPC has made progress on security architecture – surveillance contracts, community engagement – but the threat landscape remains challenging. Rather than cower, NNPC’s scope has grown by leaps and bounds.
The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline is the most ambitious inland gas project in Africa. Flagged off in 2020 under President Buhari, it spans 614 kilometres and costs roughly $2.8bn. When fully operational, it will transport 2.2 billion scf per day, support three new independent power plants in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano, and serve as the first leg of the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline toward Europe.
Now, for the critical part: I have watched enough infrastructure projects in emerging markets to know that ribbon-cutting ceremonies are cheap. What matters is crossing the River Niger, physically and metaphorically. True to type, in July 2025, the Ojulari administration celebrated exactly that engineering feat. The project team managed to lay pipe across one of Africa’s most challenging waterways. That is not a small feat.
Since then, momentum has increased. First gas is expected to reach Abuja in a matter of months. If that happens on schedule, it will be a watershed moment. But I would caution that the AKK has already faced delays and cost escalations. The original completion timeline was optimistic. The current management seems to have learned from that – they are now under-promising and over-delivering, which is refreshing.
The real test will be whether the industrial revival in Kano and Kaduna follows the pipeline. Textile mills and manufacturing hubs will not spring back to life automatically. They need complementary policies – tariff reform, export incentives, and reliable electricity distribution. NNPC can bring gas to the gate. It cannot force factory owners to turn on their machines. Yet, NNPC seems undeterred.
If there is a case study in Nigerian project perseverance, it will be the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) pipeline. Construction began in 2013. It was not meant to take this long to complete. I have written reports predicting its completion every two years since 2016. I was wrong every time, but the horizon is promising now.
The terrain was unforgiving. Swamps, rivers, community disputes, and funding gaps.
But NNPC, under the current leadership, finally deployed specialised micro-tunnelling equipment to breach the last major obstacle. As of February 2026, the OB3 is flowing approximately 300 million scf per day. That is real gas, moving from the stranded Eastern fields to the industrial West.
I want to highlight something that warms an analyst’s heart: the project is being handled by a local contractor, Oilserv. That is a testament to deepening local content. But it also raises a legitimate question about oversight. Local contractors bring lower costs and faster mobilisation, but they also require rigorous quality assurance. So far, Oilserv appears to have delivered. I would like to see independent audits published – transparency breeds confidence. And if the thoughtfulness in aggregating gas supply and delivery is any indication, the omens are very encouraging.
The crown jewel, in my view, is the NNPC Gas Master Plan 2026, relaunched with additional partners under the Ojulari management. That is not another glossy brochure; it is a coherent framework connecting AKK, OB3, ELPS, and future projects into a single national grid. Think of it as the operating system for Nigeria’s gas economy.
Previous master plans failed because they were aspirational but not sequenced. This one prioritises: it focuses on power generation first (the largest demand centre), then industrial feedstock (fertiliser, methanol, petrochemicals), then compressed natural gas for transportation and liquefied petroleum gas for cooking. That is logical.
But here is my main reservation: the master plan relies heavily on continued international partnership and financing. The Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline to Europe is a multi-billion-dollar project that requires alignment with Algeria and Niger, both of whom have their own priorities. And European gas demand, post-2022, is less predictable than it once was, although the recent Middle East crisis appears to herald a silver lining for Africa-leaning investments. Despite that, Nigeria should not bet the house on exports only. Domestic industrialisation is the safer, more transformative bet.
So where does that leave an analyst like yours truly? I am overwhelmingly supportive of the direction, but I am not naive about the distance still to travel.
The positives: AKK is crossing rivers. OB3 is flowing. The Master Plan is coherent. NLNG’s success proves the model. ELPS shows what is possible. Ojulari’s first year has delivered more on-the-ground progress than recent years. Gas flaring is declining. Local content is deepening.
The critiques: Costs need to be more transparent. Project timelines have historically been fiction. Security of pipelines is an ongoing vulnerability. And gas alone cannot fix Nigeria’s broken electricity distribution network – that requires state-level reforms and private sector participation that lie outside NNPC’s mandate.
Let me end where I began. I have watched Nigeria’s energy sector for a long time. I have seen grand plans evaporate. The current moment feels different. Not because the challenges have disappeared: they haven’t. But because the leadership is finally treating gas infrastructure as a war, not a workshop. Pipelines are being laid. Rivers are being crossed. Molecules are moving.
AKK is coming. And for about the first time in years, I believe it.
Ilori is an energy analyst
Fire Ravages Gombe Technology Centre, N4m Property Lost
Pipeline Surveillance Crucial for $50bn Upstream Investment
Tinubu Approves New Deep Offshore Policy to Unlock $50bn Investment
NMDPRA Moots 5% Turnover Penalty to Discourage Oil Industry Infractions
OPEC Hails Tinubu’s Reforms, Oil Output on Nigeria’s Economy
2027 Presidency: ADP Candidate Raises Alarm Over Plot to Replace Him
Trump’s Family Unveils New Cryptocurrency Platform
Senate Denies Receiving Petitions Against Tinubu’s Ambassadorial Nominees
Dangote Cement Lights Up Benue Host Communities With CSR Initiatives
Reps Recommend 3-year Jail Term For Aviation minister
Tems Sets New Record On Billboard Hot 100 Chart
