By Ogochukwu Isioma
The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has alleged that the Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, paid about $5m for the secondary school education of his four children in Switzerland, calling for a full investigation and public explanation.
Dangote, president of the Dangote Refineries, made the allegations during a media roundtable broadcast live on Channels television.
The allegation, the latest in the petrol price war, renews the feud between the Africa’s richest man and Nigeria’s petroleum regulatory body’s boss.
Dangote said, “I have actually had people making complaints about a regulator who has actually put his children in secondary school. And that secondary school education, which is six years, four of them cost Nigeria $5 million. I mean, you cannot imagine somebody paying $5 million for educating four children.
“Mallan Farouk has four of his children whom he educated in Switzerland at a cost of $5 million for their secondary school education alone, not university.
“When you look at his income, his income does not match paying this kind of fees. And even if it is me paying $5m for six years for my four children, the taxman has to look at my taxes and how much I pay.
“From Sokoto, where he comes from, people are struggling to pay ₦100,000 for school fees. A lot of children are at home, not going to school, because of ₦100,000. I cannot understand why somebody who has worked all his life in government, and he has four children whose school fees he has paid $5 million for.”
A group of lawyers and civil society organisations (CSOs) recently protested in Abuja, demanding the immediate resignation of Farouk Ahmed over allegations of unexplained wealth, including the alleged diversion of $5 million in public funds used to finance his children’s luxurious foreign education.
The group known as Concerned Lawyers and Civil Society in Defence of Public Trust alleged that Ahmed had abused his office by using public funds to educate his children abroad. They demanded that Ahmed account for the over $5.5 million spent on his four children’s secondary and tertiary education at some of the world’s most expensive institutions, a sum they claim is vastly disproportionate to his earnings as a career civil servant.
The protesters, who gathered at the NMDPRA headquarters, claimed that Ahmed’s actions were a clear case of corruption and abuse of power. They alleged that the funds used to pay for the children’s education were diverted from public coffers and that Ahmed’s actions were a betrayal of the public trust.
The protesters, therefore, demanded Ahmed’s immediate resignation, a full-scale investigation into the NMDPRA’s financial records, and the recovery of any public funds used to educate his children.
They also called for Ahmed’s prosecution under the Public Procurement Act and the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) guidelines.
