From struggling for crude in a country considered Africa’s largest oil producer to dealing with an oil mafia conspiracy, Dangote has been no stranger to unusual disputes.
This time, a feud between Aliko Dangote and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), which has been ongoing for over a year, is dominating headlines, as Dangote decides to play rough.
Very recently, the Nigerian billionaire linked the group’s head to a $5 million corruption scandal, claiming that Farouk Ahmed, who heads the NMDPRA, used the money to pay for his children’s tuition in Switzerland.
Dangote accused Ahmed of economic sabotage and demanded that he go before the Code of Conduct Tribunal to explain to Nigerians how he managed to raise $5 million for his children’s tuition.
According to the Punch newspaper, the NMDPRA had refuted a similar accusation made in July by a group that alleged Ahmed had spent more than $5.5 million on his four children’s overseas education.
The group highlighted that the amount in question was blatantly contradictory to a public official’s salary.
This accusation was recently revisited by Dangote, who insisted that the case be looked into to avoid the erosion of public trust.
What Dangote said
“I’ve 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 $5m. I mean, you cannot imagine somebody paying $5m for educating four children,” Africa’s richest man stated.
“When you look at his income, his income does not match paying this kind of fee. And even if it’s me paying $5m for six years for my four children, the taxman has to look at my taxes and how much I pay,” he added.
Speaking further on the case, he made comparisons between what the NMDPRA boss was alleged to be paying for tuition versus the average cost of education in his home state.
“From Sokoto, where he comes from, people are struggling to pay N100,000 for school fees. A lot of children are at home, not going to school, because of N100,000. I cannot understand why somebody who has worked all his life in government, and he has four children whose school fees he has paid $5m for,” Dangote said.
He also went on to draw comparisons between the $5 million tuition and what he, being the richest man in the country, spent to educate his children.
“Even my own children didn’t go to those schools. My children went to a Nigerian secondary school. They didn’t go outside Nigeria to attend secondary school,” he said.
“I am not calling for his removal, but for a proper investigation. He should be required to account for his actions and demonstrate that he has not compromised his position to the detriment of Nigerians. What is happening amounts to economic sabotage,” he added.
Dangote then went on to reveal that he is going to personally ensure that the truth concerning the case is revealed.
“The Code of Conduct Bureau, or any other body deemed appropriate by the government, can investigate the matter. If he denies it, I will not only publish what he paid as tuition in those secondary schools, but I will also take legal steps to compel the schools to disclose the payments made by Farouk.”
Dangote vs NMDPRA
The recent debacle between Dangote and the NMDPRA is hardly the first of its kind.
The Dangote Oil Refinery filed a lawsuit against the NMDPRA and Nigeria’s state oil corporation (NNPCL) in 2024–2025 in an attempt to revoke import permits granted to fuel merchants.
At the time, Dangote asserted that by permitting large-scale imports in spite of local capability, these licenses threatened the sustainability of domestic refining.
The lawsuit also claimed regulatory infractions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and demanded ₦100 billion in damages.
But in the mid-way into 2025, the refinery dropped this complaint, and the court officially dismissed it following the withdrawal.
