Member of the Federal House of Representatives and current contender for the Ekiti State governorship seat, Opeyemi Bamidele may have bitten more than he could chew by publicly disobeying and disregarding the agreement reached by his party to endorse incumbent governor, Kayode Fayemi, for a second term in office.
Bamidele, who thinks this is a slight to his ambition, has vehemently rebuffed the party's decision, making it known that he must contest the election, which holds next year. But sources within the party have confirmed to Huhuonline.com that he may be eased out of the party if he fails to soft-pedal.
One of the sources disclosed that the top hierarchy of the party is currently studying his statement, in which he declared that “nobody” can stop him from contesting the election.
Bamidele is also aware of this fact, as he has hinted of some nocturnal plots to send him and his supporters away from the party, further giving the hint that he could also pursue his ambition through other platforms.
The lawmaker, who once served Lagos State as Commissioner for Information and Strategy, had declared his intention to contest the governorship election several months ago, despite his knowledge that Fayemi was only in his first term and could seek for re-election. This political tussle polarised the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Ekiti State.
For fear that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is already latching into the crisis to create a formidable force ahead of the election, leaders of the ACN such as National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande met days ago and endorsed the governor for continuation.
A source at that meeting confirmed to our reporter on Monday that there was a debate which ended in favour of Governor Fayemi.
“It was a unanimous decision,” the source, a top party official in Lagos, said.
“But we are surprised that Bamidele has refused to heed to the party, which should be supreme. He has become very desperate and at this stage, he could be eased off if he is not careful.”
It was learnt that prior to the meeting, some chieftains of the party, including the party's spokesman, Lai Mohammed made several efforts to resolve the issues between the duo to no avail. Days before the last meeting held last week, an invitation was sent to Bamidele but he refused to show up at the meeting where it was decided that Fayemi should be given another opportunity.
However, Hon. Bamidele denied receiving the invitation prior to the meeting. He said the letter got to him a day after the meeting was held. The House of Representatives member rejected the decision, saying it smacks of selfish interests.
In a statement he personally released in Ado Ekiti yesterday, he said Governor Fayemi was never endorsed even though Tinubu and Lai Mohammed had confirmed the endorsement.
“I have read in some of the Nigerian dailies the purported report of what transpired at the July 3, 2013, Ado Ekiti meeting of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and I find it difficult to reconcile the reports with the contents and actual proceedings at the said meeting, just like many other leaders of the party who were personally in attendance at the meeting.
“Surely, I am amazed and disappointed that a sincere attempt by leaders of the ACN to resolve the lingering crisis that had existed within the party in Ekiti was mismanaged by some selfish elements who twisted the good faith call by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on party leaders and members in Ekiti to find an amicable manner of resolving the said crisis, including a call on the leadership of the party to immediately reinstate all the ward and local government structures of the party that had been arbitrarily dissolved without congresses and in violation of the party’s constitution. It was an indoor meeting where party leaders freely spoke their mind.
“Unfortunately, those who are bent on straining my cordial relationship with the leadership of the party went out of the meeting to give a twisted version of the well-intended advice of His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, insinuating that Asiwaju had endorsed Governor Kayode Fayemi for second term and ‘warning’ me to abandon my ambition.
“I am stating unequivocally that by the grace of God and the encouragement of the well-meaning people of Ekiti State, I, Michael Opeyemi Bamidele, will be contesting election to be Governor of Ekiti State come year 2014. It is an irrevocable conclusion based on popular yearnings as well as my personal conviction and commitment to human capital development and the creation of a new and united Ekiti.
He assured that no one could come between him and Tinubu, who gave him the opportunity to serve Lagos State for 11 years. “Having worked as one of his committed and trusted leg boys to actualise his dream of creating a new Lagos, I am sure Asiwaju will not begrudge me on my ambition to work with other well-meaning Ekiti sons and daughters to take Ekiti to the next level
“...Nobody can stop me from contesting the governorship election. I cannot fight with Tinubu just like it is not compulsory that we should agree on everything at all times.
“It is a personal decision for which I am willing to take responsibility, God being my strength. This deliberate mismanagement of information, no doubt, is in furtherance of the series of attempts to push me and my supporters out of the ACN, forgetting that even if they had succeeded in doing that, it still would not deter me from pursuing my vision and ambition on other progressive party platforms based on divine guidance and the leading of Ekiti stakeholders home and abroad.
“I have an aspiration to be Governor, which is narrow and personal to me. But I have an ambition, which is broader than my personal aspiration and it is this ambition to see a new and better Ekiti in place that actually unites me with Ekiti people regardless of political, religious, social or cultural divides.”
Those sympathetic to Bamidele recalled to Huhuonline.com how he was dropped from his ambition to contest for the Senate in the last election for Senator Babafemi Ojudu.
“This man has sacrificed for the party. In the last election, he was asked to step down from his senatorial ambition and he agreed and went to the House of Representatives. I think it is just right that he be allowed to further his ambition this time,” a party member close to Bamidele explained.
The fear in the Bamidele's camp, according to another source, is that now that they have endorsed Fayemi for another term of four years, Bamidele's political relevance may have waned by the time the governor completes his term.
However, those opposed to him gave a pass mark to Governor Fayemi, saying he deserves a second term. One of such party chieftains is Lai Mohammed who confirmed that the party truly endorsed the governor for his positive strides so far. Those close to Fayemi also consider his role for the entrenchment of democracy in the country. They believe he should reap from his labour especially as he had not been a failure since he was elected.
“The truth is that no one person can be bigger than a party. If Bamidele should be eased out today, where would he go? Is it the PDP?” a top party member said, adding that the party would continue to make attempts to sooth frail nerves.
“But Bamidele should realise, in the midst of this stubbornness, that no one person can be bigger that a party. It was a collective decision to allow Fayemi for a second term. He should not allow the party turn its back on him.”
The PDP had intervened in wake of the crisis, warning Tinubu to desist from his alleged dictatorial tendencies in Ekiti State politics. The ACN also reacted, asking the PDP to mind its business.
In the latest reaction by Tinubu through his media aide, Sunday Dare, he stated that he would continue to support and endorse good causes around the country just like he endorsed Fayemi.
The statement said Tinubu was not a brick or a piece of wood, but a Nigerian citizen who could tell what is good from what is bad. It stated that the former Lagos State Governor “has the perfect right to express his opinion on political matters and to endorse who he may endorse for the position of the ACN nominee for the Ekiti governorship.
“In due course, Asiwaju will surely endorse who he would for other elective positions across the country in full exercise of his fundamental right. I predict Okeke (the PDP Publicity Secretary in Ekiti) will get acute indigestion from that act as well...Okeke shows his ignorance that the Nigerian constitution has enshrined freedom of speech as a fundamental right of all Nigerians, even us in the opposition.”
The statement confirmed that Tinubu openly endorsed Fayemi for another term, saying anyone not satisfied with the decision has the right to disagree or even contest against Fayemi when the time comes.
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The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has offered whistleblowers between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of recovered stolen Nigerian assets held abroad for information that leads to their recovery.
Olukoyede disclosed this on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom.
According to him, the ability of EFCC operatives to trace assets, cooperation from the judiciary and access to credible intelligence have played important roles in the commission’s success in securing non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
He also described the EFCC as having some of the best investigators in the world and stressed the importance of protecting and encouraging whistleblowers.
He said anyone with credible information about stolen Nigerian assets taken or hidden anywhere in the world could receive between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of the recovered assets as an incentive, with payment made after the recovery.
Olukoyede further revealed that the EFCC had forfeited cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Federal Government within the past three years.
He cited several cases involving the recovery and forfeiture of assets, including cases linked to a former Chairman of the Central Bank of Nigeria and a former Attorney-General of the Federation.
The EFCC chairman explained that the commission is legally empowered to seek the forfeiture of suspected proceeds of crime by applying to the High Court for an order. He said the process is similar to procedures used in countries such as Australia and Canada.
Olukoyede also recalled a case involving an aircraft allegedly acquired by an individual who was accused of receiving about $30 million in bribes in connection with a power project. He said the aircraft was forfeited about three months ago and had subsequently been added to the presidential air fleet.
He also referred to a property containing about 753 housing units that was forfeited from a former CBN governor, against whom the EFCC has filed criminal charges in three courts.
Speaking about the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, Olukoyede said the EFCC opened an investigation following allegations of abuse of office. He claimed that investigators traced about 57 properties to Malami and that approximately 48 of them had been forfeited.
The EFCC chairman further mentioned the forfeiture of a private university allegedly linked to a director in the Federal Ministry of Health. According to him, the official voluntarily surrendered the property following the commission’s investigation.
Olukoyede said the measures demonstrate the importance of asset tracing, international cooperation, credible intelligence and whistleblower protection in the fight against financial crime and the recovery of stolen public assets.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has raised concerns over the growing volume of imported petrol entering Nigeria, warning that it could be forced to export more of its own production if the trend continues.
The refinery said imported Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) made up roughly 43 per cent of the petrol supplied to the Nigerian market in July. It argued that the development was creating serious difficulties for a domestic refinery with the capacity to produce enough fuel for the country.
Dangote Refinery explained that it has maintained sizeable petrol reserves since commencing operations to ensure that consumers across Nigeria have access to a reliable supply. Keeping those reserves, it noted, requires substantial expenditure on storage, transportation and working capital.
However, the refinery said the continued granting of import licences without adequate information about expected import volumes has made it increasingly difficult to determine how much petrol should be produced and stored for the local market.
The company said holding large quantities of petrol becomes financially burdensome when there is no certainty about how much imported fuel will compete for the same market. It therefore considers exporting surplus stocks a more commercially viable option than allowing them to remain in storage indefinitely.
According to the refinery, increased exports in recent months should not be interpreted as evidence that Nigeria lacks sufficient refining capacity. Instead, the exports are being driven by excess stock resulting from unpredictable import volumes.
Dangote Refinery maintained that it remains fully committed to supplying the Nigerian market and has the capacity to meet or surpass the country's petrol requirements. It said its decision to export surplus products was aimed at managing inventory efficiently and avoiding unnecessary storage and financing expenses.
The refinery also warned that market disruptions caused by excessive imports could make it harder for domestic refiners to accurately predict demand. Any resulting supply problems, it said, should not automatically be blamed on local refineries.
It urged regulators and other industry stakeholders to improve transparency around petrol imports and strengthen coordination within the downstream petroleum market.
The company argued that policies that give greater support to domestic refining would help Nigeria reduce its dependence on imported fuel, conserve foreign exchange, strengthen energy security and maximise the economic benefits of investments in local refining infrastructure.
Dangote Refinery said it remains prepared to supply the country but stressed that a more predictable and transparent market environment is necessary for efficient production and inventory management.
Business
In The Spotlight
A group of heartless carpetbaggers have captured the Nigerian state, and it appears that they, their biological and political descendants, will hold the levers of government and access to Nigeria’s commonwealth for a long time to come.
When you consider news reports of how previous and current state actors steal public funds, buy choice properties in the toniest districts of Nigeria’s major cities, acquire private jets, and even establish private universities, you wonder if some people have more than two heads, to adopt a Yoruba phrase.
Either because of an inability to deliver the greatest good to the greatest number of Nigerian citizens, or by intention, the political elite have kept the people poor, causing them to depend on the largeness of heart of the same elite to meet their existential needs.
That explains why poor, downtrodden, and unconnected Nigerians eagerly collect crumbs of measly N5,000, rice, gari and whatever else the politicians offer to obtain their election votes or acquiescence after rigging the elections.
When watching an economically disadvantaged individual tell a politician who is seeking to become a legislator the good news that his wife just had a new baby, and he needed to prepare for the naming ceremony, it felt like the oppressed poor were enabling his oppressor to further oppress him.
It was like the classic case of Stockholm syndrome, of victims collaborating with their “captors” to cement the oppressive stranglehold that they already had over the state and the commonwealth of the nation, thus unwittingly arresting their own future development.
A running mate to a former governorship candidate in a Southwestern state hilariously regaled Nigerians with the story of how constituents would have raided all the alcoholic drinks in his refrigerator in the early hours of the morning, even before he woke from the hectic campaign tour of the previous day.
The political elite have practically cornered the Nigerian state for themselves, children, tribesmen and acolytes, and have devised a way to admit only those that they have found to be loyal, or pliable, into their rank of oppressors.
The oppression of the citizens of Nigeria is easily accomplished because of the high illiteracy level amongst the poor masses. The use of the weapon of illiteracy is more evident in Northern Nigeria, whose political leaders somehow turn a blind eye to the illiteracy and underdevelopment of their people.
In 2024, UNICEF revealed that out of Nigeria’s 18.3 million out-of-school children, about 12.1 million, or 66 per cent, were resident in the Northwest and Northeast regions. Yet, instead of expanding educational facilities and opportunities, some Northern governors are arranging mass weddings for children who are hardly out of their teen years.
And this is not to deny the weaponisation of illiteracy even in Obafemi Awolowo’s Western Region, which is regarded as the Athens of Nigeria, after its pre-Independence head start of free, universal and compulsory primary school education.
As if he had a premonition that Nigeria’s so-called democrats would eventually compromise education, to the detriment of the lowest and marginalised masses, that Karl Marx described as the “lumpen proletariat”, French political thinker Montesquieu argued a long time ago that “It is in a republican government that the whole power of education is required.”
Western Nigeria’s free education scheme was gradually abandoned from the days of the Second Republic when some Yoruba members of President Shehu Shagari’s political party knocked it off its bottom with the argument that “qualitative” education was better than “free” education.
It is more than a shame that a free, universal and compulsory primary school education scheme was abandoned under President Shagari, who not only was a trained teacher, but had a career as a teacher before his political career.
Awolowo had warned Nigeria’s political elite with the following quip: “The children of the poor that you failed to educate will not let your children sleep peacefully.” The insecurity that currently occurs in nearly every part of Nigeria only drives Awolowo’s point home.
Probably the realm of the Nigerian republic that has been most complicit with the carpetbagger political elite is the media, whose members either serve the elites as press secretaries who kill media brushfires, or editors who either run planted stories, or spike stories that the politicians do not want published.
The media is so compromised that it can hardly perform those responsibilities assigned to it by Section 22 of the Nigerian Constitution, which are to “be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in (Chapter II of the Constitution) and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people.”
Some apologists have argued on behalf of the media that the political elite have so run the economy aground that the media, which can only thrive as commercial enterprises within Nigeria’s quasi-capitalist economy, cannot stay afloat, especially with the devastating inroads that the digital media are making into their audience, advertising revenue and profit.
The absence of regional economies, the argument goes, prevents the emergence of regional newspapers that can thrive on advertising revenues from regional companies, the way it obtains in the economies of North America and Western Europe. Many Nigerian newspapers, that are essentially regional, often pretend to be national to receive advertising revenue from companies whose market is national.
Two other collaborators of the political elite are the election management agencies and the judiciary at both the national and sub-national levels of government. The conspiracy between these agencies and the political elite is almost like that of Siamese twins conjoined by the belly button.
After the election management agencies may have deliberately bungled (especially) governorship and legislative house elections, and declared false reports, the losers, who felt that they won the election, would then approach the temple of justice, with significant financial inducement to ask for justice(?).
From that point on, the justice that both contestants hope to corruptly obtain could swing according to the heft of the naira in the Ghana-must-go bag that they will be hauling into the chambers of the denizens of the corrupted judiciary.
Thus, the “award” of electoral justice is “a matter of cash”, to quote Basi, the protagonist of “Basi & Co”, the television sitcom produced by environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who himself was denied justice from the judiciary that served the regime of General Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s most notorious military dictator.
In Nigeria, the lines of separation of powers that demarcate the duties of the three arms of government –the legislative, executive and judiciary– and the checks and balances that empower each arm to check the others have become almost irredeemably blurred.
As legislators use constituency projects as a ploy to carry out the functions of the executive, the president issues executive orders that are essentially legislative in nature. Though the judiciary does not perform the duties of the other arms, it fails to check them as it indulgently winks at their excesses.
If those who are regarded as Nigeria’s political elite really know what is in their enlightened self-interest and would like to protect the future of their descendants from what Thomas Hobbes described as a short, brutish and nasty existence, they will use their current privilege to correct the evil they have done to Nigerians.
They must urgently redeem the future before it delivers violence against their children.
By Lekan Sote
In The Spotlight
Lagos alone is worth more than Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda and Mauritius combined.
Let that sink in.
With an economy of N41.17tn — about $102bn in 2021 — Lagos State dwarfed the entire gross domestic products of four countries. Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa sit on oil wealth that funds nations. Ogun, Anambra and Imo churn out goods, services and commerce that would make small economies jealous.
By the numbers, Nigeria’s states are giants.
But walk the streets of Lagos, and you will still find mothers cooking with firewood. Drive through Port Harcourt, and you will see communities drinking water polluted by the same oil that makes the state’s GDP glow. Visit Umuahia, Abeokuta, or Minna and ask the average trader what “trillion-naira economy” means to her dinner table.
The answer is: nothing.
That viral video telling you “10 Nigerian states are richer than countries” is both true and a lie. True, because the 2021 BudgIT figures don’t lie — Lagos at N41.17trn, Rivers at N7.96trn, and so on. A lie, because those numbers are GDP, not prosperity. They measure how much economic activity happens _in_ a place, not how much of it reaches the people who live there.
A country with $7,778 GDP per capita, like Botswana, will still feed its citizens better than a state with $102bn in total output but $2,058 per capita, like Nigeria. A state can host a port, an oil rig, and a tech hub, yet fail to build a hospital that works.
So, the real question isn’t “Which state is bigger than which country?”
The real question, and the one our governors should lose sleep over, is this: When your economy is bigger than a nation, why are your people still living like they have nothing?
In this edition of The Bottomline, we follow the money from GDP to the gutter — and ask why Nigeria’s trillion-naira states have not become trillion-naira lives.
The viral numbers are not new. They were lifted straight from BudgIT’s 2022 State of States report and reflected 2021 estimates: Lagos at N41.17tn, followed by Rivers at N7.96tn, Akwa Ibom at N7.77tn, Imo at N7.68tn, Delta at N6.19tn, Anambra at N5.14tn, Ondo at N5.10tn, Ogun at N5.03tn, Bayelsa at N4.63tn and Niger at N4.58tn.
The trick is in the timing. To pitch those 2021 figures against 2025 country GDPs is statistical fraud. Nigeria has since rebased. The NBS moved the base year from 2010 to 2019, and the whole map shifted. Lagos itself has moved on: its 2025 _Lagos Economic Development Update_ puts the state at N43.06tn in 2023, with forecasts of N54.77tn for 2024 and N66.47tn for 2025. Those are projections, not fresh NBS post-rebasing observations, but they tell you the direction: up.
There is no debate that Lagos is Nigeria’s economic engine. From a colonial port to federal capital until 1991, it never lost momentum. Today, trade, manufacturing, ports, telecoms, tech, entertainment, real estate and finance all cluster in just 3,345 square kilometres. Compare that footprint to Botswana’s 581,730 sq km, Namibia’s 825,615 sq km, Rwanda’s 26,338 sq km, and Mauritius’ 2,040 sq km. Yet in 2021, Lagos’ $102 billion economy was several times larger than Botswana’s $19.9bn, Namibia’s $15.1bn, Rwanda’s $16.4bn, and Mauritius’ $16.2bn, according to 2025 World Bank figures.
That comparison is legitimate. The conclusion people draw from it is not.
GDP tells you how much value was produced in a territory. It does not tell you who owns it, who earns it, or whether the roads work, the lights stay on, or the hospital has drugs.
A state can run a trillion-naira economy and still have mothers boiling water on firewood. A country can have a smaller GDP and deliver a better life. Look at the per capita numbers: Botswana at $7,778, Namibia at $5,309, Mauritius at $11,819. Nigeria sits at about $2,058. Even Rwanda, at just $773 per capita, has pushed its $3-a-day poverty rate down to 38.6 per cent — proof that size is not destiny.
The oil states expose the fraud most brutally. Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa rank high because petroleum inflates their GDP. But oil wealth does not flow into state coffers in equal measure, and it certainly does not flow into household wallets. BudgIT’s own fiscal sustainability index proves this. In 2022, Rivers topped overall fiscal performance despite Lagos having the biggest economy. A big economy without revenue discipline, jobs, and services is just a billboard.
Nigeria does not have a GDP problem. We have a translation problem.
We have pockets of enormous economic power. Lagos. Rivers. Akwa Ibom. Ogun. Anambra. Delta. The output is real. What is missing is the bridge between that output and ordinary life.
Until economic activity creates real jobs, until IGR rises and addiction to federal allocation falls, until infrastructure supports production instead of strangling it, those trillion-naira figures will remain a cruel joke.
So let the video go viral. Let Lagos be “bigger than Botswana”.
But governors, commissioners, and citizens should ask only one question:
If my state can outproduce a country, why can’t it out-deliver a decent life for the people who call it home?
Until we answer that, we are not rich. We are just big.
By Raphael Mbamalu