Popular faction of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as well as other prominent Nigerians on Saturday described the death of former Governor of Ondo State, Olusegun Agagu, as both shocking and a huge loss.
Condoling with the people of Ondo State and State Governor, Segun Mimiko, the NGF led by the Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi said the incident occurred at a period the country urgently needed his services.
“For the NGF, it is unfortunate that Dr. Agagu, an excellent family man, a consummate politician and academic, and elder statesman passed on at a time our country needed his invaluable service most. His loss is no doubt a monumental loss to our nation.
“Between 2003 and 2009, Dr. Agagu was an influential member of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum. And during that time, the former governor showed he was a man on a mission to improve the lives of his Ondo people in particular and Nigerians in general. His was a voice of reason, moderation and peace at all times that Nigeria was faced with serious national challenges.
“Dr. Agagu’s departure is deeply painful. But we take solace in the fact that he lived and died well. He dedicated his life to serving his people and country. We are especially proud that the former governor lived an exemplary life worthy of emulation.”
NGF said that though the group cannot continue grieving over the death of Agagu, whom it called a “public-spirited community man”, it was sure that Dr. Agagu will long be remembered as a diligent, humble, patriotic, honest and philanthropic community organiser and leader.
Governor of Oyo State, Abiola Ajimobi, in a release signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Festus Adedayo in Ibadan, said he had not recovered from shock since hearing the news of Agagu's death on Friday night.
He described the late former Governor as a brilliant man who brought his intelligence to the fore as Governor of Ondo State. Recalling how the late Agagu transformed Ondo, Aimobi said the death of the late former governor, who had been residing in Ibadan for decades, was shocking.
He recalled that Agagu was one of the academics at the University of Ibadan where he taught Geology, and made Oyo thick as the intellectual capital of Nigeria. He said it is a loss to the people of Oyo. According to him, Agagu left imperishable legacies in Ondo State where he was governor between 2003 and 2007, and was particularly outstanding for the incomparable road infrastructure that he brought to the state.
“Dr. Agagu can never die; when the people tread those roads constructed by his administration in Ondo State, when they pass by those imperishable legacies he left, the foremost Geology teacher will live in their hearts and they will confront his great love for the people of the state afresh, even decades to come.”
Governor Ajimobi used the opportunity to warn against the undue pursuit of materialism and that Nigerians must be conscious about vanity. He described the late Agagu as one who believed in the future of Nigeria and did everything he could to sustain the country's unity, praying for strength for the family he left behind.
Senate President David Mark described the late Agagu as a dependable ally who Nigeria will continue to miss. In a condolence message signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Kola Ologbondiyan, Mark remarked that Agagu was a trust worthy and mature politician who played politics without bitterness, adding that throughout his lifetime, he neither pretended nor shied away from saying the truth no matter the circumstances.
“As a minister, Agagu distinguished himself as a goal-getter,” Mark said. “As the then Executive Governor of Ondo, he recorded impressive outing as a performing governor. As a political leader, he gave his people a sense of belonging.”
He expressed sympathy to the government and people of Ondo State and the bereaved family, saying that Nigeria had lost one of her best politicians.
Similarly, the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) also described the death of Agagu as the end of a glorious era, adding that he was a loyal party man and a diligent, principled person who stood on the side of the people at all times.
“From Agagu’s stint as a lecturer at the prestigious University of Ibadan, through his tenure as Minister of Aviation, to his election to the position of Governor of Ondo State and his life in retirement, the former governor remained with the people,” a statement from the forum signed Governor Aliyu’s spokesperson, Danladi Ndayebo said.
While praying for the repose of his soul, the group urged the Ondo State Government to immortalise him because of his contribution to the development of the state.
For the PDP, the late Agagu was a patriot and a brilliant technocrat who discharged his responsibilities both as minister and governor with finesse.
In another statement issued on Saturday, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh prayed for eternal rest for the late PDP chieftain, adding: “The Peoples Democratic Party expresses deep sorrow and conveys its heartfelt condolences on the death of the former governor of Ondo state, Dr. Olusegun Agagu. We wish to put on record, his pioneer contributions to the groundwork of the current power reforms of the Federal Government.
“On behalf of National Chairman of our great party, Dr. Bamaga Tukur, we send our sincere condolences to his immediate family and to the government and people of Ondo state. May he find rest in the bosom of the Lord.”
Former National Deputy Chairman of the PDP, Yekini Adeojo, said he was still in shock learning that the former governor who came into the country on Thursday hale and hearty just died suddenly.
Another chieftain of the party, Lekan Balogun described him as “a gentleman, a politician and an intellectual of note, whose contributions would be strongly missed.”
Former Secretary to the Oyo State Government, Dejo Raimi, said he was more pained because Agagu died a young man.
“He was not suffering from any chronic disease,” he noted. “I think I will seek clarification from the family whether the death was sudden or expected.”
The All Progressives Congress (APC), Oyo State Chapter, said, through Moojed Olaoya, a chieftain of the party, that “it is unfortunate that the nation is gradually losing some of its important people. It is a big loss to the academic community, Ondo State and the nation at large.”
The chairman, Nigeria Voter’s Assembly, Moshood Erubami said Mr. Agagu’s death was painful because it came at a time leaders in the country are putting heads together to move the nation forward.
The Lagos Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), in its condolence message through its chairman, Taiwo Taiwo, said Agagu made his impact both as a lecturer and a governor.
“It is a very great loss and may his soul rest in peace. As governor of Ondo state, he made his mark and did his best towards impacting the state positively. He was very known in his profession as a geologist and he taught many students at UI.”
For human rights lawyer, Fred Agbaje, "one can only commiserate with his family. He brought his intellectual background on politics. He never saw politics as a game of do or die. May his soul rest in peace."
President, Voters Awareness Initiative, said: “He too has come, he has played his part and he is gone. I just want to pray that God will grant him eternal rest. The only lesson here is that whenever you have an opportunity to serve humanity, do it right because you will go back to your maker one day.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Feyi Agagu, the first son of the late former governor, has revealed that his father was hypertensive. He explained that his late father recently had a medical examination that revealed he had a little cholesterol, and was hypertensive.
“There is diabetics in our family, but it’s nothing major,” Feyi said. “It was just something he had been dealing with for the past 10 to 15 years. So, there was no inkling that something was about to happen.”
He revealed that his mother was distraught, having lost her best friend and husband, who passed away on his way to St Nicholas Hospital.
“My father had the usual illness that comes with age, so there was no stand out cause for his passing,” he said.
“He lived a simple but fulfilled and happy life. He left amazing memories and fantastic legacies behind. I will miss the friendship; I will miss the advice; he was pretty much anything any wife, son or daughter could ask for in a father. He was a mentor to many, a brother, a benefactor; I’m sure a lot of people will miss him.”
He recalled that his father showed no sign of illness at the family’s recently concluded annual two-and-a-half week family vacation.
“I guess when it’s time to go, when your maker comes to get you, when he brought you, he did not ask anybody, so he can take you when he sees fit,” he said.
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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