By Nnamdi Prince
The recent friction between Alhaji Aliko Dangote and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) was widely framed as a battle over industrial standards and economic sabotage.
However, beneath the headlines lies a more systemic pathology: a deep-seated, age-long hostility toward oversight. In Nigeria, regulation is often viewed not as a necessary safeguard for the public good, but as an intrusive enemy to be defeated or a hurdle to be bypassed.
The Nigerian psyche appears conditioned to resist any form of external check. We see this play out across the highest levels of governance and the grassroots.
To curb systemic corruption and financial irregularities, the Obasanjo administration established the Due Process Department (officially the Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit), led by Dr Oby Ezekwesili.
The department was designed as a watchdog to ensure transparency and accountability in government spending. However, its rigorous oversight soon drew the ire of politicians and public officials.
Many viewed the new regulations as a hindrance to the “smooth running” of their offices, which often meant bypassing standard procurement rules. Consequently, DDrEzekwesili became a target of intense personal hostility; she was derisively nicknamed “Madam Due Process” by those who sought to undermine her reform efforts.
For years, the Nigerian Police Force engaged in a bitter legal struggle against its own oversight body, the Police Service Commission (PSC), over recruitment powers. Similarly, the media, the supposed “Fourth Estate”, has historically fought tooth and nail against the Nigerian Press Council, viewing any attempt at professional standardisation as a precursor to censorship.
While scepticism of government intentions is often justified by a history of state overreach, the reflex to dismantle oversight entirely has backfired. By refusing to be watched, institutions have inadvertently created “sovereign fiefdoms” where accountability goes to die.
The refusal to allow robust regulation of NGOs and civil society has birthed a Wild West of altruism. In the absence of a Charity Commission or a functional NGO regulatory framework, the line between activism and extortion has blurred.
Today, Nigeria’s “Third Sector” is a sanctuary for fraudsters masquerading as pastors, human rights defenders, and community leaders. For instance, we have witnessed the use of “Prophet-CEO” and “Comrade Leaders” where religious and civil society leaders amass untaxed billions under the guise of spiritual and humanitarian service li, living in opulence while their “flocks” remain in poverty, shielded from financial transparency by the cry of “persecution” whenever oversight is mentioned.
There is also the monetisation of Truth in the media space; the lack of enforceable ethical oversight has led to “brown envelope” journalism becoming the standard. When public interest stories are sold to the highest bidder, the media loses its role as a watchdog and becomes a public relations firm for the elite.
This hostility toward oversight has fostered a “crisis of credibility” that touches every Nigerian. When oversight bodies are weakened or intimidated, the consequences are tangible, including economic instability, where investors flee when they realise that regulators can be bullied by powerful individuals or that standards are negotiable.
Institutional rot emerges when, without oversight, government agencies become employment bureaus for cronies rather than service providers for the public, and Meritocracy dies when, in a system without checks, who you know matters more than what you do, because there is no authority to ensure the rules are applied equally to all.
Nigeria cannot survive as a modern state if every sector is a law unto itself. The Dangote-NMDPRA saga is merely a symptom of a larger disease: the belief that the “Big Man” or the “Big Union” is above the rule of law.
If we continue to treat oversight as a nuisance rather than a necessity, we will remain trapped in a cycle where corruption is the only thriving industry, and credibility is a foreign concept. It is time to move beyond suspicion and build oversight bodies that are independent, transparent, and, most importantly, respected.
