Nigeria’s Oil Wealth Runs on Shadows
By Abidemi Adebamiw
Every time people buy gas anywhere in the United States, they see a small sticker on the pump. It tells them exactly how much tax they are paying. Federal tax 18.4 cents per gallon. State tax 59.6 cents. Diesel carries 24.4 cents federal and 45.4 cents state. The numbers are there in black and white.
In Nigeria, I have never seen anything like that. Not once. That silence is deliberate.
For years, I thought Nigeria’s most powerful families were the ones behind this secrecy. That changed after conversations with some of the children of those who were present at the very beginning of the oil industry. What they told me was simple. The opacity was never about families. It is the system itself.
Tinubu removed subsidies, and petrol prices jumped. Yet, Nigerians still have no idea where the money goes. Reform came in name only.
NNPC operates like a private empire. Revenues disappear into “operational costs” and “under-recoveries.” Crude is stolen. Exports vanish. Communities in the Delta live with spills, poisoned water, and poverty while wealth built on their land is pocketed elsewhere.
The Dangote Refinery is running near 70 percent of its 650,000 barrel capacity. It is the largest in Africa. Even so, it has been forced to import crude from the United States, Brazil, Ghana, and Angola because NNPC could not supply it. That fact alone lays bare the rot.
And while this reality stares Nigerians in the face, NNPC has chosen to hire image makers to polish its reputation. If the corporation were truly doing the right thing, it would not need a PR campaign. The money spent on that exercise is another waste. Whose image is NNPC trying to repair? The same citizens it hides real costs from or the shadowy beneficiaries it has protected all along?
Nigeria boasts of GDP, reserves, and purchasing power. Empty numbers. If the stock exchange can give a live dashboard updating by the second, Nigerians can have the same for oil. Anything less is theft hidden behind statistics.
Oil is not just revenue. It is fairness. It is dignity. Nigerians have a right to see where their money goes. Subsidy removal without transparency is deceit, and the people are the ones made to pay.
Every time Americans stand at a pump, they see the truth written in numbers. Nigerians stand at theirs and see nothing. That is the betrayal that defines our oil industry.
Abidemi is a political analyst and Managing Editor @ Newspot Nigeria.
