News
Alleged Blackmail of Zinox Chairman and Access Bank by Benjamin Joseph: The Full Story
By Adamu Sanni, Public Affairs Analyst
An undue reprieve came the way of Mr. Benjamin Joseph, an indigene of Enugu State and Managing Director of Ibadan-based Citadel Oracle Concepts Limited, on Thursday, June 24, 2024, when the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi SAN, discontinued Charge No. CR/216/2016, wherein the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) has been prosecuting Mr. Joseph since 2016 before Honourable Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court Abuja, for giving false information to the Police but which the said Joseph failed to prove his case in a matter he reported to the police.
Mr. Benjamin Joseph
On three previous occasions, Mr. Joseph had appealed to the past Attorneys-General of the Federation to discontinue the said criminal proceedings against him but all the Attorneys-General refused his plea and rather directed the Police to prosecute him to a logical conclusion.
Their refusals are contained in the letters dated 10th February 2017, 7th May 2018, and 6th June 2022, addressed from the Office of the Attorney-General to the Inspector-General of Police.
Although he was visibly excited when the court acquitted him of the charges following the intervention of the Attorney-General, it is to be noted that the acquittal of Mr. Joseph was not on the merit of the case, as the trial was not concluded and the court did not give a judgment of its own.
It was rather based on the prerogative of the Attorney-General in the exercise of his constitutional power to discontinue any case with or without reason.
This is more so considering that a subsisting judgment was given by Honourable Justice Senchi of the FCT High Court in Charge No. CR/244/2018 which dismissed as false all the allegations made by Mr. Joseph against Technology Distributions, Access Bank, and other persons and imposed the sum of N20million as damages against him for false petitioning.
Despite the acquittal of Mr. Joseph which has saved him from a possible jail term, it still does not derogate from the judgment of Honorable Justice Senchi that had already found Mr. Joseph liable for false information.
Indeed, the acquittal was made in utter defiance of another subsisting order given on 14th June 2024 by Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/376/2024, which had restrained all parties including the Honourable Attorney-General from tampering with the said Charge No. CR/216/2016 pending the determination of the suit before him.
Campaign of Calumny
What is very bewildering in the whole scenario is that Mr. Benjamin Joseph, since 2014, intensified a media campaign against Technology Distributions Limited and Zinox Technologies Limited who had nothing to do with the problem between him and his partner and representatives, Princess Kama and Chief Igbokwe.
He engaged the services of one Bassey Udo, the publisher of a relatively unknown online newspaper, Mediatracnet.
It is to be noted that the publications of Mediatracnet are all falsely skewed and biased in favour of Mr. Joseph because Zinox Technologies and its Chairman, Leo Stan Ekeh have taken court actions against the said Bassey Udo.
He is, therefore, acting on a vendetta. The paradox is that neither Zinox nor its Chairman was involved in the transaction.
Indeed, in the course of all the investigations, reports and judgments, there was nowhere Zinox was mentioned as being involved.
Moreover, Mrs. Chioma Ekeh, the wife of Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, has never been cited as a suspect or accused in all the Police reports, both from the SFU and the Police headquarters. Neither her nor her husband ever made any statements to the Police and were never invited.
Yet, all publications orchestrated by Mr. Joseph bear ‘Zinox’ as its title with the photograph of its chairman, Leo Stan Ekeh (and sometimes with his wife – Chioma Ekeh) prominently featured as if they had any personal dealing with Mr. Joseph and his company.
Technology Distributions and Zinox Technologies are totally different companies with different shareholders, boards, and management.
More importantly, the judgment of Honourable Justice Senchi in the said Charge No. CR/244/2018 unequivocally stated that Technology Distributions and its staff were not liable for any fraud; that they were entitled to receive the proceeds of the laptops supplied on credit to Citadel which were delivered to the FIRS.
The judgment fully absolved Mr. Chris Eze Ozims and Shade Oyebode stating that they never acted as directors of Citadel but only as signatories to the account that received the proceeds of the FIRS contract, which was the only security for the laptops supplied on credit.
Moreover, the final Report by the Legal Department of the Police Headquarters on the matter dated 1st December 2020 absolved Technology Distributions and its said staff of any criminal liability and disclaimed as spurious a certain 2015 report of one Police Special Enquiry Bureau (SEB) headed by CP Olufemi Oyeleye and a certain 2015 report by the then Director of Public Prosecution, Mohammad Saidu Diri.
These so-called reports made in 2015 were disclaimed and discarded by the Police Legal Department in their said final report on 1st December 2020 because they were made based only on the petition and statement of Benjamin Joseph without giving an opportunity to the so-called suspects by way of invitation or extracting written statements from them.
How do you find a suspect liable without hearing from him after you heard only from his accuser? Yet, these are the documents being paraded online by Mr. Joseph as having indicted the staff of Technology Distributions and the Chairman of Zinox, and some staff of Access Bank.
In the publications, Benjamin Joseph claims that the Police SFU had found Technology Distributions and its staff liable but that the Police refused to prosecute them. This is totally false because in the criminal trial in Charge No. CR/216/2016, the Investigative Police Officer (Inspector Stephen Ogira) from the SFU who handled the investigations, testified against Benjamin Joseph and stated that their report had absolved TD and its staff of any wrongdoing. Similarly, the forensic analyst of the Forensic Science Laboratory D. Dept, Force CID, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos, (ASP Raphael Onwuzuligbo) who conducted the forensic analysis of the disputed Board resolution and other documents testified that the documents were not forged but were actually signed by Benjamin Joseph. So, it is false of Mr. Jospeh to still write that the SFU Report indicted the staff of Technology Distributions and Chief Leo Stan Ekeh of his wife, Chioma Ekeh. It is in this context that, perhaps, the motive of Benjamin Joseph in this inexplicable focus in his online campaign of calumny on Chief Leo Stan Ekeh and his wife, Chioma Ekeh, is probably motivated by a quest to blackmail them and tarnish their reputation, allegedly at the behest of their competitors, and bring down their business which they have strenuously taken more than 35 years to build resulting into Technology Distributions Limited (now TD Africa Limited) as the foremost distributor of ICT products in the West African subregion.
How it all began
This chequered issue arose from a business transaction in December 2012 between Citadel Oracle Concept Limited (Mr. Benjamin Joseph’s company) and their appointed staff/representatives, (Princess Kama and Chief Igbokwe), when they won a contract for the supply of HP laptops to the FIRS that same year. Just as other retailers who won similar contracts but had no funds to execute the contract, their said staff/representatives approached Technology Distributions Limited (now TD Africa Distributions Limited), the biggest authorized HP distributor in Nigeria, to supply them the laptops on credit pending payment by the FIRS. In view of previous bad experiences and to avoid exposing the business to bad loans, Technology Distributions Limited, as it is their policy in the normal course of business, insisted that its staff, Mr. Chris Eze Ozims and Mrs. Shade Oyebode, would have to be signatories to an account opened for the purpose of receiving the proceeds of the FIRS contract as security for the laptops supplied on credit. After the contract was executed and payment effected by the FIRS, TD Africa deducted the pre-agreed invoice sum of the laptops and had its staff resign as signatories to the said account. A similar procedure applied to the other customers who had similar contracts with FIRS for the supply of similar HP laptops at the time. Technology Distributions and its named staff have no reason or motive to hijack the contract as falsely alleged by Benjamin Joseph because they had other retailers who had similar contracts with FIRS and were ready to take the same laptops at the same uniform price for supply to the FIRS at the same profit. So, what’s the motive to hijack his contract as he alleged?
Sharing Formula Problem
Exactly one year after the conclusion of the contract and the parties had gone their ways, Mr. Joseph petitioned the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigerian Police (SFU), Milverton Road, Ikoyi, in 2013, against Princess Kama, the representatives of Citadel and her uncle, Chief Igbokwe (the owner of Ad’Mas Technologies Limited) who equally won similar FIRS contract. Because Citadel was unknown to Technology Distributions and had no credit rating with them, Chief Igbokwe, an old customer of Technology Distributions, stood as their guarantor. Mr. Joseph claimed that his company was used without his knowledge and that the account opened by his company in Access Bank was not to his knowledge and that the Board resolution used to open the account was forged. The Police thus subjected the documents, including the Board resolution bearing Mr. Joseph’s signature, to forensic analysis and confirmed that the signature was actually his. He would later join Technology Distributions and its staff as part of those who he claimed hijacked his contract.
However, in the course of the investigations, it emerged that after the execution of the contract, a disagreement arose between him and Princess Kama when they could not agree on the formula for sharing the profit earned from the transaction. While he insisted on diverting the entire proceeds of the contract to his company, Princess Kama insisted on letting Technology Distributions take the invoice value of the contract because her uncle, Chief Onny Igbokwe had guaranteed the credit. Mr. Joseph’s then lawyer and legal luminary, Afe Babalola SAN tried to intervene to resolve the issue between them and they held meetings at Ibadan. However, when they could not reach an amicable settlement, Mr. Joseph changed the narrative – claiming that he had no knowledge of the transaction and reported the case to the Police SFU as a fraud. The question is: if his company was actually defrauded, why hold settlement meetings first, and when it failed then report to the Police a case of fraud?
Further Investigations by the Police (Force CID) Headquarters Abuja
Not satisfied with the report of the investigation by the Police SFU, Benjamin Joseph went ahead to lodge another petition with the Nigerian Police (Force CID) Headquarters, Abuja, in 2014, on the same set of facts and allegations. The then Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase instructed a detailed investigation. The investigations by the Force Headquarters also came to the same conclusion as the SFU Report. It was this deceit that informed the Police to commence criminal proceedings against Mr. Joseph for false and misleading information and waste of Police resources and time, in Charge No. CR/216/16 (IGP vs. Benjamin Joseph), at the FCT High Court, Abuja before Honourable Justice Peter Kekemeke.
Investigation by the EFCC
Again, in 2016, Mr. Benjamin Joseph petitioned the Office of the then Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on the same facts, insinuating that his company was used to defraud the Federal Government of Nigeria of over N200m. In this case, he claimed that though payment was made, no computers were supplied to the FIRS. The EFCC acting on the instruction of the VP launched a nationwide investigation and confirmed that all the laptops were supplied and their assigned users identified at FIRS, and again, showing that Benjamin Joseph lied. The EFCC report also exonerated Technology Distributions Limited and its staff, Chris Eze Ozims, Shade Oyebode, and Charles Adigwe, of any fraud, as the money received by the company was the actual invoice value of the computers supplied to Mr. Joseph’s company, Citadel, on credit. It was also noted that Zinox Technologies Limited and its Chairman, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, had no involvement, whatsoever, with the transaction.
However, following the insistence of Benjamin Joseph, the EFCC charged the said representatives of Citadel, Chief Igbokwe and Princess Kama in Charge No.CR/244/2018 before Honourable Justice Senchi. But in a considered judgment, Honourable Justice Senchi dismissed all the allegations put forward by Benjamin Joseph in his petition to the EFCC as false and imposed damage of N20million against him. The EFCC did not appeal the judgment and indeed saw no reason to do otherwise.
Intervention by the current AGF
In the criminal charge contained in Charge No. CR/216/2016 before Honourable Justice Peter Kekemeke, while the Police Prosecutor, Simon Lough SAN, closed his case since 2018, Mr. Joseph has used all manner of alibi to delay the fair trial of the case. He first filed a No-Case Submission, but to which the trial judgment ruled against him to the effect that the Police had established a triable case against him and requested him to enter his defence. He then started petitioning the office of the past Attorneys-General to withdraw the charge against him but they refused his request and rather directed the Police to prosecute him to logical conclusion. However, in a curious twist, the current AGF, the respected Lateef Fagbemi SAN, withdrew and discontinued the prosecution of Mr. Joseph.
The volte-face by the AGF is seen as utter disobedience of a subsisting court order given on 14th June 2024 by Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/376/2024). Recall that on Friday, 14 June 2024, a fresh case (Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/376/2024), came up before Honourable Justice Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja. It was a case brought by the duo Chief Onny Igbokwe and Princess Kama (as Plaintiffs) against the Attorney General of the Federation and Inspector General of Police (as Defendants), challenging the directive given by the Attorney General to the Police to withdraw and discontinue the criminal proceedings against Mr. Benjamin Joseph pending before Honourable Justice Peter Kekemeke of the FCT High Court in Charge No. CR/216/2016. The basis of this new case is that there is a subsisting judgment made by Honourable Justice Senchi of the FCT High Court in Charge No. CR/244/2024, which dismissed as false the same facts and allegations by Benjamin Joseph and imposed a N20million damages against him for giving the EFCC false information. Since there is a subsisting judgment on the merit of these facts, the Attorney-General overreached himself to now acquit Benjamin Joseph, as if he never gave false information to the Police. It is not in public interest as certain demands as contained in the 1999 Constitution were not met to justify the withdrawal of the case by the Attorney-General.
However, to the shock of lawyers appearing for the Prosecution, when the other case with Charge No. CR/216/2016, came up before Honourable Justice Kekemeke on Thursday, 20 June 2024, a lawyer from the Office of the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Barrister F. N. Umoh, Assistant Chief State Counsel, announced an appearance for the Prosecution and said she had the instruction of the Attorney General to withdraw and discontinue the case.
In the circumstance, Honourable Justice Kekemeke was constrained into making a ruling striking out Charge No. CR/216/2016, and acquitting Benjamin Joseph. As aforesaid, though Mr. Joseph got the reprieve he long begged and craved from the Attorney-General, it does not derogate from the judgment of Honourable Justice Senchi which dismissed as false his allegations against Technology Distributions Limited and other persons, and held him liable for false information with a N20milliin damages still hanging on his neck.
In effect, Mr. Joseph was not acquitted because he did not provide false information to the Police, he was acquitted on the prerogative of the AGF to apply nolle prosequi in any case he wishes.
Kaspersky experts outline how the rapid development of AI is reshaping the cybersecurity landscape in 2026, both for individual users and for businesses. Large language models (LLMs) are influencing defensive capabilities while simultaneously expanding opportunities for threat actors.
Deepfakes are becoming a mainstream technology, and awareness will continue to grow. Companies are increasingly discussing the risks of synthetic content and training employees to reduce the likelihood of falling victim to it. As the volume of deepfakes grows, so does the range of formats in which they appear.
At the same time, awareness is rising not only within organisations but also among regular users: end consumers encounter fake content more often and better understand the nature of such threats. As a result, deepfakes are becoming a stable element of the security agenda, requiring a systematic approach to training and internal policies.
Deepfake quality will improve through better audio and a lowering barrier to entry. The visual quality of deepfakes is already high, while realistic audio remains the main area for future growth.
At the same time, content generation tools are becoming easier to use: even non-experts can now create a mid-quality deepfake in just a few clicks. As a result, the average quality continues to rise, creation becomes accessible to a far broader audience, and these capabilities will inevitably continue to be leveraged by cybercriminals.
Online deepfakes will continue to evolve but remain tools for advanced users. Real-time face and voice swapping technologies are improving, but their setup still requires more advanced technical skills. Wide adoption is unlikely, yet the risks in targeted scenarios will grow: increasing realism and the ability to manipulate video through virtual cameras make such attacks more convincing.
Efforts to develop a reliable system for labelling AI-generated content will continue. There are still no unified criteria for reliably identifying synthetic content, and current labels are easy to bypass or remove, especially when working with open-source models. For this reason, new technical and regulatory initiatives aimed at addressing the problem are likely to emerge.
Open-weight models will approach top closed models in many cybersecurity-related tasks, which create more opportunities for misuse. Closed models still offer stricter control mechanisms and safeguards, limiting abuse.
However, open-source systems are rapidly catching up in functionality and circulate without comparable restrictions. This blurs the difference between proprietary models and open-source models both of which can be used efficiently for undesired or malicious purposes.
The line between legitimate and fraudulent AI-generated content will become increasingly blurred. AI can already produce well-crafted scam emails, convincing visual identities, and high-quality phishing pages.
At the same time, major brands are adopting synthetic materials in advertising, making AI-generated content look familiar and visually “normal.” As a result, distinguishing real from fake will become even more challenging, both for users and for automated detection systems.
AI will become a cross-chain tool in cyberattacks and be used across most stages of the kill chain. Threat actors already employ LLMs to write code, build infrastructure, and automate operational tasks.
Further advances will reinforce this trend: AI will increasingly support multiple stages of an attack, from preparation and communication to assembling malicious components, probing for vulnerabilities and deploying tools. Attackers will also work to hide signs of AI involvement, making such operations harder to analyse.
“While AI tools are being used in cyberattacks, they are also becoming a more common tool in security analysis and influence how SOC teams work. Agent-based systems will be able to continuously scan infrastructure, identify vulnerabilities, and gather contextual information for investigations, reducing the amount of manual routine work.
“As a result, specialists will shift from manually searching for data to making decisions based on already-prepared context. In parallel, security tools will transition to natural-language interfaces, enabling prompts instead of complex technical queries,” adds Vladislav Tushkanov, Research Development Group Manager at Kaspersky.
Nigerians living with albinism say their biggest challenge is not skin sensitivity or poor eyesight, but being seen, heard and treated as full human beings, a message that resonated at a recent empowerment session hosted by the Consumer Advocacy and Empowerment Foundation (CADEF) and Albino Empowerment Foundation.
CADEF
The event last Saturday focused on lived experiences, self-advocacy and rights awareness rather than handouts, though participants received food, protective clothing and skin/eye care materials.
CADEF Executive Director, Prof. Chiso Ndukwe-Okafor, said real progress requires respect and inclusion, not pity, adding that knowledge of human rights equips people to demand fairness.
“Dignity begins when people are seen fully and treated equally,” she said.
Ifeoma Ngesina, founder of Albino Empowerment Foundation, defined inclusion as equal rights and participation in decisions affecting their lives, not stereotypes.
“When persons with albinism are included in schools, workplaces, leadership and media, harmful myths fade,” she said, stressing it builds confidence and leadership.
CADEF Advisory Board Member, Ms Kobi Ikpo, urged participants to own their narrative: “If you do not tell people how to treat you, they will not know how to address you. Once you accept yourself as a complete human being deserving of respect, it reflects in how you carry yourself — and that confidence commands respect.”
Afolake Odudinu highlighted parental ignorance leading to school dropouts, skin damage from sun exposure and social/marital stigma, noting skin cancer treatment remains inaccessible for many.
Efosa Peter, a father and associate pastor, rejected pity for genuine empowerment: “I hate pity. I don’t want to be pitied — I want empowerment.” He described persons with albinism as creatively gifted and warned against insincere initiatives.
“Empowerment must include self-esteem and self-motivation. When you see yourself as whole, others will follow,” he said.
Teacher Rose Adudu shared overcoming school bullying through discipline and advocacy, helping enrol a young albino girl in school despite later parental withdrawal.
“Your character will speak for you,” she said.
Participants were encouraged to use content creation for education and myth-busting, with CADEF planning annual events and advancing Digital Financial Inclusion Rights for Persons With Disabilities.
The forum underscored a core demand: opportunity, understanding and respect over sympathy.
By Blaise Udunze
When the Federal Government approved the write-off of about $1.42 billion and N5.57 trillion in legacy debts owed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to the Federation Account, it was rightly described as a landmark decision. After years of disputes, reconciliations, and contested figures, Nigeria’s most important revenue institution was, at least on paper, given a cleaner slate.
NNPC
The approval, contained in a report prepared by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and presented at the last year November meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), effectively wiped out 96 percent of NNPC’s dollar-denominated obligations and 88 percent of its naira liabilities accumulated up to December 31, 2024. It resolved long-standing balances arising from crude oil liftings, joint venture royalties, production-sharing contracts, and related arrangements.
Judging it critically, the decision carries both promise and peril, but can be viewed from the perspective of a country desperate to restore confidence in public finance management. It offers an opportunity to reset relationships, clean up accounting records, and move forward under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). Yet, it also exposes deep structural weaknesses in Nigeria’s oil revenue governance, weaknesses that, if left unaddressed, could turn today’s debt relief into tomorrow’s fiscal regret.
Context matters. The debt write-off comes not during a period of revenue abundance, but at a time when Nigeria’s upstream revenue performance is under severe strain. According to the same NUPRC document, the commission missed its approved monthly revenue target for November 2025 by N544.76 billion, collecting only N660.04 billion against a projected N1.204 trillion.
Royalty receipts, the backbone of upstream revenue, tell an even starker story. It is alarming that against an approved monthly royalty projection of N1.144 trillion, only N605.26 billion was collected, leaving a shortfall of N538.92 billion. Cumulatively, by the end of November 2025, the revenue gap stood at N5.65 trillion, with royalty collections alone falling short by N5.63 trillion. These figures underscore how fragile Nigeria’s fiscal position remains, even as trillions of naira in historical obligations are being written off.
To be fair, the debts forgiven were not incurred overnight. They are the product of years of disputed remittances, lacking transparent accounting practices, and overlapping institutional roles, particularly under the pre-PIA regime. As petroleum economist Prof. Wumi Iledare has repeatedly observed, the former Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation combined regulatory, commercial, and operational functions, making revenue reconciliation cumbersome and frequently contested.
That legacy continues to haunt the system, as witnessed with the ongoing dispute between NNPC Ltd and Periscope Consulting, the audit firm engaged by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, over an alleged $42.37 billion under-remittance between 2011 and 2017, which illustrates how unresolved the past remains. Though NNPC insists all revenues were properly accounted for as claimed, Periscope maintains that significant gaps persist, forcing FAAC to mandate yet another reconciliation exercise. This recurring pattern of audits, counterclaims, and stalemates has weakened trust in the federation revenue system and eroded confidence among states that depend on oil proceeds for survival.
Crucially, the debt write-off does not mean NNPC has turned a corner financially. Statutory obligations incurred between January and October 2025 remain on the books, amounting to about $56.8 million and N1.02 trillion. Although part of the dollar component was recovered during the period under review, the accumulation of new liabilities so soon after reconciliation raises uncomfortable questions about whether old habits are being replaced with genuine fiscal discipline.
More troubling still is what NNPC’s own audited financial statements reveal about its internal financial health. Despite recording a profit after tax of N5.4 trillion on revenues of N45.1 trillion in 2024, the company’s inter-company debts ballooned to N30.3 trillion, representing a 70 per cent increase within a single year. This is not debt owed to external creditors but largely obligations between NNPC and its subsidiaries, effectively the company owing itself.
Records show that of 32 subsidiaries, only eight are debt-free, and the rest, particularly the refineries, trading arms, and gas infrastructure units, remain heavily indebted to the parent company. There was a recurring cycle where profitable units subsidise chronically underperforming ones, and accountability steadily erodes because cash that should fund maintenance, expansion, and efficiency improvements is instead trapped in internal receivables.
The refineries offer a stark illustration whereby the Port Harcourt Refining Company alone owed N4.22 trillion in 2024, more than double its 2023 figure, while Kaduna and Warri refineries followed closely, with debts of N2.39 trillion and N2.06 trillion respectively. Despite the repeated failed turnaround maintenance with many years of rehabilitation spending, none have operated sustainably at commercially viable levels. Their continued dependence on financial support from the parent company highlights the cost of postponing difficult restructuring decisions.
And, for this reason, international observers have long warned about these structural weaknesses. One of the critics, the World Bank, has repeatedly flagged NNPC as a major source of revenue leakages. It further noted that the persistent gaps between reported earnings and actual remittances to the Federation Account. Even after the removal of petrol subsidies, the bank observed that NNPC remitted only about 50 per cent of the revenue gains, using the rest to offset past arrears. Such practices, while perhaps defensible in internal cash management terms, undermine fiscal transparency and weaken Nigeria’s macroeconomic credibility.
This is why the central issue is not the debt write-off itself, but what follows it because debt forgiveness is not reform. Without firm safeguards, it risks entrenching the very behaviours that created the problem in the first place. As Prof. Omowumi Iledare has warned, the scale and pace of the inter-company debt build-up represent a governance test rather than a mere accounting anomaly. Allowing subsidiaries to operate indefinitely without settling obligations is incompatible with the idea of a commercially driven national oil company.
The fact remains that if NNPC wants to function as a true commercial holding company under the PIA, it must enforce strict settlement timelines, restructure or divest non-viable subsidiaries, while clearly separating legacy debts from new obligations. With this, it holds subsidiary leadership accountable for cash flow and profitability. Independent, real-time audits and transparent reporting must become routine features of governance, not emergency responses triggered by controversy.
There is also a broader national implication. At a time when Nigerians are being asked to accept higher taxes, reduced subsidies, and fiscal tightening, large-scale debt write-offs without visible accountability risk undermining the legitimacy of the entire revenue system. Citizens cannot be expected to bear heavier burdens while systemic inefficiencies in the country’s most strategic sector persist.
Of a truth, the cancellation of NNPC’s legacy debts could mark a turning point in Nigeria’s fiscal governance, but only if it is not treated as its conclusion but the beginning of reform.
If discipline, transparency, and commercial accountability follow, the decision may yet help reposition NNPC as a profitable, credible, and PIA-compliant institution. If not, today’s clean slate will simply defer the reckoning until the next reconciliation, the next audit dispute, and the next fiscal crisis.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional, writes from Lagos and can be reached via: [email protected]
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