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It is considered that in every organized society, the home is supposed to be a place of security. It should be where families find peace after a hard day’s work, where children grow, where dreams are nurtured, and where the pressures of life temporarily fade away. This narrative comes with keen interest, having witnessed that for millions of Nigerians, home has become the country’s newest economic battlefield. This is fast becoming the experience for the vast majority of Nigerians.
Across the length and breadth of Nigeria, citizens are deeply lamenting the skyrocketing rents. Regrettably, this has become one of the fastest-rising costs of living. An unexpected trend which has become a huge concern is that currently apartments that were rented for N700,000 or N1 million just a few years ago are now advertised for N3 million, N5 million or even higher. Amidst this bizarre development, do you know
that they are often without significant improvements to the property
itself? One key troubling development is that recent estimates suggest
that house rents in many Nigerian cities have surged by between 100 and
300 percent over the last two years, a pace that far exceeds the country’s official inflation rate and has placed unprecedented pressure on households already struggling with rising food, transportation and energy costs.
Landlords, through estate agents, increasingly demand one or two
years’ rent upfront. Tenants are expected to pay 10 percent of the principal rent toward agency fees, legal fees, agreement charges, caution deposits, and, in most cases, the service charge (which appears
to be higher), security levies, and utility-related costs before receiving the keys. In many cases, these additional charges add hundreds of thousands or even millions of naira to the advertised rent, making
the total cost of securing accommodation far beyond the reach of average-income earners. Equally disturbing is the unchecked exploitation by agent marauders, who prey on desperate house seekers by imposing outrageous and often illegal fees that further deepen Nigeria’s housing crisis. What should ordinarily be a routine life event has become a financial ordeal.
Nigeria’s housing crisis is no longer simply a property story. It has
evolved into an economic emergency with profound implications for
families, businesses, public health and national development.
The Federal Government’s National Housing Data Technical Committee
estimates that Nigeria faces a housing deficit of approximately 15 to
20 million homes. At the same time, millions of existing houses are
considered structurally inadequate and lack access to essential infrastructure. If this figure is something to consider, anyone would know that these figures reveal two overlapping crises. First, this shows that millions of Nigerians cannot find decent accommodation, whilst
millions more live in overcrowded, unsafe or poorly serviced housing.
At the same time, Nigeria’s population continues to expand rapidly, with
cities absorbing hundreds of thousands of new residents every year.
One of the challenges is that urbanisation has consistently outpaced
housing development, widening the gap between supply and demand while
predictably, rents continue to rise and affordability continues to decline.
Remarkably, housing experts generally recommend that households should
spend no more than 30 percent of their income on accommodation. For many
Nigerian families, that recommendation has become almost impossible to
achieve.
Teachers, nurses, journalists, police officers, civil servants, young
bankers, entrepreneurs, artisans and other middle-income earners
increasingly devote more than half of their annual income to rent alone.
For many, housing has become the single largest financial obligation,
leaving very little for every other necessity of life.
After paying landlords, food budgets shrink. Healthcare is postponed.
Children are transferred to less expensive schools. Retirement savings
disappear. Business investments are suspended. Vacations become
unimaginable luxuries. The rent bill has become the first expense
families think about and the last financial burden they can escape.
The effects extend far beyond individual households. This is totally outrageous, as financial analysts have long observed that when accommodation consumes a disproportionate share of disposable income, consumer spending across the economy inevitably weakens.
Families postpone replacing household appliances. Vehicle purchases are
delayed. Furniture sales decline. Restaurants receive fewer customers.
Clothing retailers experience lower patronage. Small businesses lose
purchasing power from consumers whose earnings are now tied up in rent. The result is a vicious economic cycle in which rising housing costs suppress consumption, reduce business activity and ultimately slow economic growth.
Behind every rent increase lies a deeply personal story. Consider a fictional but representative family whose experience mirrors that of countless Nigerians. The aspect of receiving notice that the annual rent for their modest two-bedroom apartment would rise from N1.2 million to N3 million comes with uneasiness. At this point, the Blessings’ family had spent months desperately searching for an alternative.
Unable to afford the increase and harassment from the landlord, they
eventually relocated nearly 30 kilometres away from their former
neighbourhood. The consequences were immediate. Their children had to
change schools. The family’s daily commuting time doubled. Transportation costs rose sharply. Family time disappeared.
The father now leaves home before sunrise and returns late at night. The
mother spends more each month commuting than she once spent on
groceries. Their financial burden has not disappeared. It has merely shifted from rent to transportation and also deals with other issues like epileptic power supply and flooding, especially during this rainy season.
Unfortunately, such stories are no longer exceptional. They have become
increasingly common across Nigeria’s major cities. Perhaps no demographic feels this pressure more acutely than young professionals.
Come to think of graduates entering the workforce who quickly discover that
entry-level salaries cannot support decent accommodation close to their
workplaces. You would also see many remaining with their parents far
longer than anticipated. Other effects include seeing them share apartments with several unrelated adults to reduce costs whilst some endure daily commutes lasting three or four hours because affordable housing exists only in distant suburbs.
The fact is that the consequences extend beyond inconvenience because
long commuting hours reduce productivity, increase fatigue, heighten
stress levels and significantly diminish quality of life. Another aspect
of this and which is discouraging is that for many talented young Nigerians, financial independence, home ownership and family formation
are becoming increasingly distant aspirations. Several interconnected
forces explain why rents continue to climb so aggressively.
Inflation has significantly increased the cost of cement, steel, roofing
sheets and virtually every construction material required to build
houses. The depreciation of the naira has made imported building materials substantially more expensive. No doubt, from recent findings, there are clear indications that there is a significant increase in the prices of building materials. Let us see the period between 2024 to 2026 – cement: N6,500 – N13,000; blocks: N600 – N1100; 30T of sand:
N165,000 – N250,000; 30T of granite: N530,000 – N780,000; rebars (iron)
ton: N850,000 – N1,150,000 amongst others.
To be fair, it is a known fact that high interest rates have increased borrowing costs for developers, while land acquisition remains prohibitively expensive in many urban centres. The very question at heart is, how has this recent development significantly impacted the apartments built five years ago and beyond?
The government has made it difficult to the point that obtaining development approvals can be slow and costly. Developers also contend with multiple taxes, infrastructure levies and rising labour costs before construction even begins. No doubt, these expenses inevitably find their way into rental prices. But one question keeps running
through the minds of many, which is, how do these directly impact
apartments built many years back? The truth is that market realities alone do not explain every increase.
In many locations, speculative pricing has taken hold. Some landlords
have raised rents far beyond what can reasonably be attributed to maintenance or inflation, taking advantage of overwhelming demand and the severe shortage of available accommodation.
The inability of many Nigerians to purchase homes has further
intensified the pressure on the rental market. Inflation, high mortgage
rates and limited access to long-term housing finance have pushed home
ownership beyond the reach of millions, forcing them to remain tenants for much longer than planned. This should be blamed on the government of the day, as more people compete for a limited supply of rental properties, landlords possess even greater leverage to increase prices.
Housing insecurity is also producing a less visible but equally damaging
consequence for deteriorating mental health.
The constant fear of eviction, the uncertainty surrounding annual rent
reviews and the enormous pressure of raising large lump sums every one
or two years create persistent psychological stress.
Think of the impact of parents’ worry about disrupting their children’s
education. Young couples postpone marriage because they cannot afford
accommodation. Family disagreements increasingly revolve around
financial pressures. Consider the part of many Nigerians who quietly or
secretly or unknowingly battle anxiety, emotional exhaustion and depression arising from the struggle to secure decent housing.
None of these psychological costs clearly appear in official economic statistics, but the truth is that they profoundly affect productivity, family stability and overall well-being. It is equally obvious that the
crisis is also affecting employers and businesses.
Workers forced to travel long distances arrive at work exhausted. Traffic congestion consumes valuable productive hours each day. It turns
out that companies increasingly struggle to retain staff who relocate in
search of affordable accommodation. Also, many employers face mounting pressure to increase housing allowances simply to remain competitive.
All these call for a balancing as employees demand higher wages to
offset escalating living costs, further increasing operating expenses
for businesses already contending with inflation, unstable exchange
rates and rising energy prices.
Housing affordability is therefore no longer merely a social concern. It
has become a business and national competitiveness issue.
Though Nigeria is not alone in confronting housing affordability
challenges, its recent trend calls for attention. Across Africa, rapid
urbanisation continues to outpace housing supply.
For this reason, Kenya has introduced ambitious affordable housing
programmes aimed at expanding supply, although implementation challenges
remain; this can’t be compared to Nigeria’s current situation. Ghana
is not left out of the equation as it continues to battle a significant
housing deficit. Ghana is also grappling with the irony of completed
homes that remain unaffordable for many citizens. South Africa, despite
possessing a relatively more developed mortgage market, continues to
experience severe affordability pressures in cities such as Johannesburg
and Cape Town.
Nigeria’s situation, however, is intensified by its enormous population,
rapid urban expansion, limited mortgage penetration and one of Africa’s
largest housing deficits.
Nigeria has witnessed successive governments introducing affordable
housing initiatives, mortgage schemes and public-private partnerships
which fail before implementation. While these programmes represent
positive intentions, delivery has consistently fallen far behind growing
demand.
Housing experts argue that meaningful reform requires far more than
constructing a limited number of housing estates.
Nigeria must simplify land acquisition processes, reduce infrastructure
costs, expand mortgage accessibility, improve planning approvals,
encourage private-sector investment in affordable housing and strengthen
incentives for developers willing to build homes for middle- and
low-income earners.
Improving housing data is important, but accurate statistics alone cannot reduce rents. Effective implementation remains the country’s greatest policy challenge.
Let’s consider some of these salient points proffered by urban planners who insist that Nigeria’s housing crisis cannot be solved exclusively through market forces. According to them, governments at all levels must invest strategically in infrastructure and create financing
mechanisms that reduce development costs. To further help reduce the
housing gap, they encourage the construction of affordable rental
housing rather than focusing disproportionately on luxury developments.
The truth is that if housing continues to consume an ever-growing share
of household income, consumer spending, investment and long-term
economic growth will ever remain constrained. Other key barriers that
must be addressed quickly, as highlighted by researchers, are inflation,
limited housing finance, weak regulatory enforcement and inconsistent
policy implementation, which happen to be major bottlenecks to affordable housing delivery.
One key question that yearns for an answer is whether it is not obvious to
the government and other stakeholders that housing is far more than
concrete walls, roofing sheets and painted ceilings. The fact is that
shelter as the meaning implies, shapes educational outcomes, influences
public health, determines productivity, strengthens families, supports
social mobility and contributes directly to national competitiveness.
At this stage, it is a complete shame and at the same time an irony that a nation where hardworking teachers, nurses, journalists, entrepreneurs, artisans, security personnel and civil servants cannot comfortably afford decent shelter risks weakening its middle class, widening inequality and undermining sustainable economic growth.
If the truth must be told, Nigeria’s rent crisis is therefore not merely
about landlords and tenants. It is about the future of work, family stability, economic opportunity and social justice. Clearly, it is about whether millions of hardworking citizens can enjoy the dignity that comes with secure and affordable housing.
The mistake all along, which must be eschewed, is that a country’s
progress is being measured solely by the number of luxury estates it builds or the height of its skyscrapers. More importantly, it should also be measured by whether ordinary citizens can afford a safe place to call home without sacrificing their children’s education, healthcare, savings or future aspirations.
If this is not adequately addressed, this rent trap will persist. Until affordable housing becomes a genuine national priority backed by bold reforms and sustained implementation; millions of Nigerians will continue facing an impossible choice, which would invariably lead them to surrender their financial future to keep a roof over their heads or abandon the comfort, security and dignity that every family deserves.
Concerned stakeholders shouldn’t continue to believe that the true
cost of Nigeria’s rent crisis is therefore measured only in naira. It is measured in postponed dreams, delayed marriages, fractured families, declining productivity, abandoned ambitions, struggling businesses and the quiet erosion of hope among citizens who work tirelessly every day but find the simple promise of a decent home slipping further beyond their reach.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional, writes from Lagos and can bereached
Post-2027 Reform Advisory For Reprofiling Civil Service For Next Level Performance
Opinion
Post-2027 Reform Advisory For Reprofiling Civil Service For Next Level Performance
It is the task of the institutional reformer not only to push for concrete reform steps and policies, or take stock of the steady achievements of reform articulation and implementation. It is also very cogent for the institutional reformer to always stay ahead of political and electoral dynamics. The civil service was founded on its capacity for administrative stability and continuity that defies political and regime changes. In other words, despite the regular changes in government, it is the task of the civil service system to keep up the administrative frameworks that undergird the business of government. If, as it has become axiomatic, the public service is a complement to democracy and democratic governance, then it becomes important for any government hoping to achieve legitimacy in governance to keep reforming its civil service system or consolidating its reform achievements.
This is the fundamental basis for this piece. It is founded on a serious question: How must we start thinking about the next level civil service reforms in Nigeria—all consolidated together in the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration and in the institutional reform programmes of some state governments, LGAs inclusive—after the 2027 elections and the constitution of new governments across the Nigerian federation? For the institutional reformer, this question implies that it does not matter which government is in place as long as such a government is either dedicated to consolidating its own reform agenda or continuing to deepen the frameworks of institutional reform left by the previous government. Administrative reform is a continuous business given that its objective is to keep the civil service system sufficiently adaptive and creative to preempt challenges and generate resolutions of administrative problems.
The challenge before the communities of service and practice in Nigeria therefore derives from their responsibility to keep holding up Nigeria’s governance, administrative and institutional reforms to the mirror of global best practices and national imperatives. In other words, it is our responsibility to spotlight where we are coming from, where we are at the moment and what possibilities for more inclusive reform the future holds if we articulate specific change management frameworks and scenario reflection. All across the world, proactive governments are recognized by their attention and dedication to continuously reassessing their policy implementation, performance effectiveness and service delivery efficiency. In the United Kingdom, for example, the government is focusing on, among many other reforms, a very strict emphasis among the senior civil servants on performance management which necessitates tying performance to pay and incentives. This also involves some kind of negotiated exit for those who are not able to meet up with the performance contract and its requirements.
In the United States, there is an ongoing tension on the relationship between merit and patronage, and between job security and administrative performance. In other words, the struggle lies within the need to balance between political correctness and the need for professional civil servants to exercise policy discretion. In Latin America and Africa, reform efforts are directed towards transiting the civil service away from (neo)patrimonial frameworks founded on clientelist and political patronage to meritocratic and performance-based bureaucracies that have the capacities to backstop developmental states.
The charge for the communities of service and practice is then to determine how we can align ongoing civil service reform agendas across the world with the realities of the unfinished business of administrative and institutional reforms in Nigeria. We need to determine how we can keep renewing the transformative edge of institutional reform to backstop democratic governance, especially in the next four years that the 2027 general elections are set to herald. To be able to do this, we must be able to give cogent attention to a series of diagnostic questions which first emerged in my attempt to grapple with the task of researching the civil service and its reform challenges. What, in the light of lessons from high-performing administrative systems across the world, can the inherited Weberian civil service achieve that will be suitable for the purpose of Nigeria’s current governance and development objectives? If the delivery of democratic dividends and restoration of public trust in public institutions is a clear objective for any reform thinking, how can we reengineer the MDAs’ management system into a performance-oriented, technology-enabled, socially compliant and accountable institution in a stewardship relationship with the public under social compact? What fundamental changes can be made to the MDAs’ personnel policies, structure and operational cost ratios that are most effective and consistent with the optimal productivity level of the national economy while restoring the status of government as the employer of choice in the labour market?
How can the MDAs’ skills deficit be corrected in a manner that would achieve a mix of reskilling, regulated injection of fresh skills and some measure of rightsizing and the reduction of redundancies if unavoidable, within a framework that labour unions will like to sign on to and partner to spiritedly implement? How would policy work and the civil service be more sensitive to the political objectives of the government and at once be accountable to the public in the context of democratic consolidation without its capacity for relative independence as an apolitical and professional entity being undermined? How can the political leadership be encouraged to commit the much-needed political will that is a defining factor in investing in the transformation of the public service?
In applying these questions to the MDAs as the operational engine room of the public service system, the fundamental issue is not just to transform their business model but to also determine the scope of reforms to prioritize in each MDA. Focusing on the federal service therefore, this will eventually raise the crucial matter of which MDAs are the most critical in delivering on the objectives of the Renewed Hope Agenda specifically, and the national development agenda generally. And finally, how might such prioritized MDAs be re-eengineered to better be able to efficiently and effectively manage the business of government for enhanced performance and productivity?
Given the depth of my interaction with the system and my research connection with its inner dynamics, I will hazard a recommendation that the government needs to prioritize three sets of MDAs: one, those at the forefront of delivering on national priority programmes and projects like wealth and job creation; two, those tasked with the implementation of infrastructural and project-rooted master plans involving investment possibilities, SMEs, rule-based market players, etc.; and three, those MDAs delivering human capital development, and welfare-oriented and social impact services. To jumpstart their institutional reform, these MDAs will have to first, be taken through basic reform housekeeping that helps them to get the basics right in terms of the fundamental elements of any effective management system that can make the public service functional. And second, the need to beef up the organizational IQ of the MDAs through the mobilization of technical support that will facilitate a service-wide capability review that will attempt to fill up the capability gaps while reinforcing the framework of performance improvement plans that must necessarily be implemented.
In the rest of this piece, I will highlight some critical reform points to signpost for the next level performance of the public service as we look to 2027 and beyond it in terms of the institutional transformation of the public service. One, given the deep erosion of the status of the public service as a vocation that is a complement to a democratic government, the government must constantly work on (re)launching a cultural adjustment programme that enables it to regain public trust in the public service. This can be done through the mainstreaming of codes of ethics and codes of practice that reinvent the public service as a value-based institution. This serves as the first level in consolidating on the building of a crop of new generation of public managers that can keep driving the transformation of the system. In this regard, the establishment of a multidisciplinary talents-reinforced senior executive service (SES) feeds into this need to reinvent and rebrand the public service, and beef up its organizational IQ. In pushing for the SES model for beefing up the brain and capability readiness of the civil service, we defer to Bob Garratt’s idea that in administration, the fish always gets rotten from the head first.
Two, rebranding the public service and establishing a senior executive service must be reinforced by the deepening of ongoing professionalization of some core cadres in the service. This allows the service to restore the government and the public service as the employer of choice by connecting meritocracy to diversity and talent management in recruitment. In constantly revising the intellectual contents of skills for running the business of government through benchmarking globally available competency frameworks, the public service is then able to regrade skills and competences that is accompanied by the installation of new and competitive wage structures and incentives packages, the rightsizing and downsizing alongside considerable social assistance programmes and severance packages, which deserve to be funded with a major credit facility given the incredible value of its return on investment (ROI) promises.
Three, it is inevitable and urgent that the government must keep reengineering the operating and management system of the MDAs as a safeguard to make them structurally capable of backstopping result-based performance management systems which connect talent management with knowledge, performance and productivity. We must do all it takes to create performance-managed backends in MDAs operations, one that not only displaces the discredited APER scores, but also deploys new performance appraisal metrics and instruments that will henceforth account for what officers have contributed or accomplished, or have the capabilities and competences to achieve. The performance management system is of course meant to instigate the consolidation of a competency-based human resource practices, career management protocols and leadership pipelining in the service.
Four, the emergence of the new normal consequent on the COVID-19 pandemic demands that the public service, post-2027, will not be able again to ignore the critical utility of digital technologies, including the preeminence of artificial intelligence in the public service workplace. This demands therefore that if the Nigerian state must be able to successfully navigate a place in the fourth and fifth industrial revolution, the public service needs to deploy new technologies in strengthening its policy management function. This can be done through reprofiling and professionalizing its planning, research and statistics function, concretizing the policy-research-consulting synergies as a means of deepening policy intelligence, strategic thinking, evidence-based analytics and problem solving. The system also must consider upgrading its M&E systems, as well as consolidating and significantly upgrading its programme, project and change management capabilities.
After the general elections are conducted, won and lost in 2027, what would continue to matter is the state of the public service and its capability readiness to deliver on the dividends of democratic governance to Nigerians. We cannot afford to lose sight of that significant issue.
. Olaopa is a Professor of Public Administration , and the Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission.
Opinion
Femi Gbajabiamila’s Dance At The Market Square
It is difficult to argue that Nigeria is not trapped in a tragic cycle of systemic plunder. Every successive government shamelessly adorns a putrid, peculiar garment of corruption in a way that marks it apart from the previous government. The propensity is never in doubt. Every new government regales the people with lofty promises of renewal, hope, and revival but only to sink deeper into the cesspool if corruption mostly bordering on theft, mismanagement of public funds, and mindless sleaze of Olympian dimension. Each new government in Nigeria increases the intensity of mass evisceration by burglarizing the exchequer while the people wallow in despair, penury, and agony.
The amount of money involved is always mind-boggling. Government officials do not steal small, they steal big. The narratives push a man of equitable conscience to wonder if Nigeria’s government officials are human beings or some aliens from the netherworld. The latest alleged corruption scandal involving Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to the President and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, represents a deeper, more dangerous low in Nigeria’s historical venal archives. In a saner clime, the Chief of Staff would have resigned immediately to allow for transparent investigation into the matter since he occupies a powerful, sensitive position in the government. But because this is Nigeria, he stays on in office.
Nigerians are told that a “fake government agency” sprouted from nowhere and held the presidency by the jugular. The purported “fake agency” Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), is an organization ostensibly created to secure diplomatic and foreign deals. The controversial Director-General of the unrecognized agency, Adeniyi Adeyemi, publicly accused Gbajabiamila of demanding and receiving a ₦400 million bribe (and demanding an additional ₦200 million and a 48% cut) to facilitate his appointment. That the Chief of Staff is still in government encapsulates the operating fetid psychology of power in the presidency. It is a profound institutional betrayal and exposes the absolute collapse of accountability at the highest level of government.
For years, Gbajabiamila presented himself as a modern, sophisticated legislator. He was supposed to represent a new breed of Nigerian politicians – educated, legally trained, and driven by policy. His transition from the apex of legislation to the administrative engine of the presidency was marketed as a step toward strategic governance. Instead, his involvement in this latest scandal and the humongous amount of money involved confirms a harsh truth – Nigeria’s political elite share a uniform appetite for public funds, regardless of their polish or pedigree.
The details of the current scandal reveal a shocking level of greed. Since the investigation is still on, one would be circumspect with conclusions. However, media reports indicate that the current scandal poses huge embarrassment to the Bola Tinubu government. No one can cover a nine-month old pregnancy. Any attempt to orchestrate the vanishing of the current scandal into a web of bureaucratic deception will ultimately backfire. The presidency’s immediate defence of Gbajabiamila in the scandal through Bayo Onanuga followed a predictable, sterile script. It was banal, barefaced, and prudish but bore the inescapable fingerprints of Onanuga whose tendencies for defending evil or promoting different shades of vices are well known. These presidential aides drink from the same trough of vile, intoxicating liquor. They actually take Nigerians to be stupid. The excuses advanced by the presidency are not just infantile but outright mischief.
As Chief of Staff, nothing moves within the presidency without Gbajabiamila’s approval. He is the primary gatekeeper of executive authority. To claim ignorance of the existence of the “fake agency” is an admission of complete incompetence. To admit knowledge is an admission of guilt. Both options show he is unfit for public office. If the agency was fake, why did the federal government allegedly allocate a large sum of money to it as a budget? President Bola Tinubu has since ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the scandal. It is a fundamentally flawed process for the Chief of Staff to remain in office while the investigation is going on. Legally, ethically, and structurally, this arrangement violates the core principles of natural justice and compromises the integrity of Nigeria’s anti-corruption architecture.
Allowing a sitting Chief of Staff to remain at the center of executive power during a major corruption inquiry creates a severe conflict of interest for several distinct reasons. The ICPC is a government agency under the executive branch. As Chief of Staff, Gbajabiamila is the administrative custodian of the Presidency. He controls access to the President, manages executive communications, and influences bureaucratic appointments. Also asking an agency whose leadership answers to the Presidency to probe the President’s chief gatekeeper is structurally contradictory. Civil servants and investigators within the commission cannot realistically exercise complete neutrality when dealing with an individual who wields immense power over the executive apparatus. Even if he does not directly intervene in the investigation, his active presence in the Presidential Villa casts a massive shadow over the process.
The credibility of the ICPC probe is already undermined by the executive’s public posture. For a country struggling to repair its global image regarding transparency, the optics of this arrangement are deeply damaging. Over the years, bodies like the EFCC and ICPC have proved to be political tools. They are quick to hunt down low-level cybercriminals but freeze when confronting powerful figures in the Presidential Villa. This selective justice destroys public trust. It sends a clear message to Nigerians – if you steal small, you go to jail, if you steal billions from the state, you get political protection.
Besides the “fake agency” scandal, Gbajabiamila is also facing fresh scrutiny following investigative reports that he drafted a memo to President Tinubu citing a “fake law” to legally divert 1.5% equivalent to ₦54 billion of annual oil and gas royalty collections from the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). It is shocking that any government official will pull off such a level of heist for private use in a country where people are facing a severe economic crisis, record inflation, a collapsing currency, and extreme poverty. While regular Nigerians are told to sacrifice and endure hardship, the leaders asking for these sacrifices are busy enriching themselves. Funds that could have equipped public hospitals, funded public schools, or repaired broken roads have instead been diverted to fund luxury lifestyles.
The current scandal involving the Chief of Staff damages Nigeria’s already battered reputation internationally. The country cannot attract serious foreign investment when its highest public offices are linked to massive financial crimes.
International partners and donors look at Nigeria and see a state run by gangsters that view the national treasury as a personal bank account. This lack of integrity keeps Nigeria dependent on high-interest foreign loans, burying future generations under a mountain of debt. This crisis is also a direct test for the current presidency. By keeping Gbajabiamila in his position, the President is tacitly approving corruption. It proves that political loyalty matters more than national integrity.
The government cannot claim to run a transparent administration while a chief administrator in the government is covered in scandal. Every day Gbajabiamila remains in office stains the credibility of the entire administration.
Nigeria’s democracy cannot survive when the rule of law is treated as optional. For decades, the country’s elites have operated above the law, creating a double standard where the rich are untouchable and the poor are punished. This latest scandal is a direct result of that unbroken culture of impunity. When leaders face no consequences for abuse of power, their corrupt behavior only grows bolder.
True national progress requires building strong institutions that can investigate and punish any individual, no matter how powerful. Nigeria does not lack laws to fight corruption, it lacks the political will to enforce them against the ruling class. Femi Gbajabiamila must step down immediately. He must face a transparent, independent judicial inquiry free from executive interference. His resignation is not a cure for Nigeria’s systemic corruption, but it is a necessary first step. It would signal that public office is a duty to the people, not a licence to pillage.
The Nigerian public must also reject the cynical attempts to divide them along ethnic, religious, or political lines over this issue. Corruption has no ethnic group. Hunger has no religion. The stolen billions do not discriminate between citizens. They impoverish everyone equally. Nigerians must unite in demanding absolute accountability from their leaders. The country is bleeding from decades of corruption, and the latest scandal involving the Chief of Staff is a painful reminder of how deep the rot goes.
If this case is swept under the rug like so many before it, it will confirm that the current government is paying lip service to fighting corruption and therefore does not have any moral justification to stay in power beyond 2027. The nation can no longer afford to shield its predators. It is time to demand justice, end the impunity, and reclaim the country from the few who continue to destroy its future.
Opinion
The Boiling Waters Of Bille
Prof. Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha
A social media video of a community with boiling waters is the immediate trigger of this intervention in the form of an essay. At first, I thought it was an AI generated image like the video in which it was falsely claimed that fish was raining from heaven like water! But I took the extra step to research into the video and what I found further was scary, familiar (in the sense of how the federal authorities treat the minorities), and baffling thereby eliciting my curiosity. The community in question is Bille located in my part of the country, the much-oppressed Niger Delta the golden goose which lays the nation’s eggs! The story of oil discovery in the Niger Delta is one of criminal neglect, state fraud, and insulting tokensim.
Bille Kingdom/Community is located in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State. It is a coastal town in the oil-producing Niger Delta region. One of the islands and coastal communities in Rivers State, it is accessible mostly by boat/water. Bille is located close to mangrove swamps and rivers, with extensive oil and gas infrastructure like oil wells and pipelines nearby. It is instructive that it is within the OML 18 corridor.
Since October 2025, Bille Kingdom has been gripped by an environmental emergency: water in rivers, swamps, mangroves, and even household wells began “boiling” with gas and a sulphurous smell. Residents report methane bubbling to the surface, flames erupting from water, and contamination of the community’s main sources of drinking water. What began as a strange natural phenomenon has become a threat to health, education, livelihoods, and human rights. This essay examines the crisis and offers concrete suggestions to stop it.
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission NUPRC, NOSDRA, and oil operators have carried out investigations and point to methane gas seepage from underground into surface water and soil. Preliminary assessments have not linked it directly to pipeline leaks or oil spills, but have described it as a “subsurface phenomenon”. By the way, Bille sits close to extensive oil and gas infrastructure, and residents suspect industrial activity, though the exact trigger remains under investigation.
The impact, we are told, has been severe and multi-layered. Wells which are used for drinking have been polluted. Children in a local school fell ill with vomiting and were forced to relocate. Exposure occurs through drinking, skin contact, and inhalation.
As it is with polluted communities, fishing and farming, the community’s main occupations, have been disrupted. Their protest placards read: “No farming, no fishing, no livelihood anymore in Bille”. Pupils were moved out of Bille for safety, breaking learning continuity with serious implications for the future of those kids.
To be sure, the sight of “bubbling water with flames erupting” has created fear and anxiety across the community. FG agencies have conducted Joint Investigation Visits and collected samples, but final laboratory results are still pending.
NUPRC has promised potable water and fire trucks, and Minister Ekperikpe Ekpo reaffirmed FG’s commitment to a permanent solution. Civil society groups, however, argue that action has been slow and transparency lacking.
Research shows that Bille is not the only location where methane surfaces in water. In arctic and sub-arctic lakes. Example is in Alaska USA where researchers ‘documented lakes that look like they are “violently boiling’ with methane. In Siberia, similar ‘thaw lakes emit methane mostly through ebullition/bubbling – 95% 0f their methane release’. It is also found in Lake Baikal Russia, Lake Edward, Lake Nyamusingire, and Lake George in East Africa. Lake Sonachi in Kenya produces ‘high dissolved methane with strong ebullition potential if disturbed’. It is also found in coastal areas in Puget Sound Washington, USA, and Three Gorges reservoir in China.
The key difference between Bille and these other ones is that they are natural. These are ‘permafrost thaw, organic sediments, or geological seeps. Bille is abnormal because it is a populated community where people live.
This therefore is a call on NUPRC and NOSDRA to publish all JIV findings and lab data without delay. Independent geologists and environmental scientists should be included to rule out bias and identify whether the seepage is natural, induced by hydrocarbon activity, or both. It is an emergency.
As a stop gap, the government should deploy water tankers, boreholes with sealed casing, and filtration systems to every ward while wells remain contaminated. Mobile clinics to test residents, especially children, for exposure to methane and hydrogen sulphide is imperative. Also, government should install gas detectors and fire suppression equipment in vulnerable areas, as NUPRC has proposed.
If investigations trace the seepage to abandoned wells, fractured formations, or leaking infrastructure, FG should mandate operators to cap, seal, or depressurize thens such as venting wells or impermeable barriers may be required
In terms of Long-Term Environmental and Livelihood Restoration, government should remediate water bodies and soil to restore fishing and farming, establish a Bille Environmental Monitoring Committee with community, government, and industry representatives for continuous monitoring. Also, there should be compensation and Alternative Livelihoods for the people of Bille. It is only fair and just for government through its agencies provide support to families who lost income during the crisis.
It is noteworthy that CSOs like Social Action and Amnesty are calling for a state of emergency, safe water, and transparent findings in the Bille environmental crisis and health hazard. It is on record too that Minister Ekperikpe Ekpo said that “the investigation is still ongoing” and FG returned to engage Bille because community cooperation is critical. Final results are still being awaited for “definitive scientific clarification”. How long shall we wait before real action takes place?
The Bille “boiling water” is not a spectacle; it is a warning. Methane seepage has contaminated water, displaced children, and broken livelihoods in a community that already bears the weight of oil-producing environments. Stopping it will require urgent science, transparent governance, immediate relief, and long-term remediation. The primary duty of government, as Minister Ekpo stated, is to protect the welfare and security of the people. Bille deserves that protection now, not later.
Prof. Eghagha writes through
heghagha@yahoo.com
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