The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has expressed strong support for reforms mandating the direct remittance of oil and gas revenue entitlements into the Federation Account, describing the move as a critical step toward strengthening fiscal transparency, predictability, and constitutional alignment across all tiers of government.
The position follows the signing of Executive Order 9 by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on February 13, 2026.
The Executive Order directs the realignment of oil and gas revenue flows in accordance with constitutional provisions and clarifies regulatory responsibilities within the petroleum sector.
Strengthening Constitutional Alignment
According to the NGF, the Order requires that government entitlements under production-sharing and related contracts—including royalty oil, tax oil, profit oil, and profit gas—be paid directly into the Federation Account.
The reforms also aim to strengthen the delineation of regulatory mandates across the petroleum value chain.
The Forum emphasized that its primary interest lies in how the reforms enhance transparency, improve predictability, and reinforce constitutional compliance in Federation Account inflows shared by the federal, state, and local governments.
As a non-partisan body representing the 36 state governors, the NGF underscored that the integrity and predictability of Federation Account revenues are fundamental to Nigeria’s fiscal federalism framework. Oil and gas earnings remain central to the nation’s distributable income, and any opacity or inconsistency in remittance pathways can weaken fiscal planning.
Impact on FAAC and Subnational Governments
Recent communiqués from the Federal Allocation Account Committee (FAAC) have highlighted disparities between gross revenue collections and final distributable sums. For subnational governments, the latter ultimately determines fiscal capacity and the scope of service delivery.
The NGF noted that complex or layered remittance channels reduce fiscal predictability, directly affecting capital planning cycles at federal, state, and local levels.
With Nigeria’s population now exceeding 220 million and growing rapidly, states remain at the forefront of delivering education, primary healthcare, infrastructure, and security. Predictable and transparent revenue flows, the Forum argued, are essential for meeting these responsibilities sustainably.
AbdulRazaq: Predictability Improves Planning
Commenting on the development, the NGF Chairman and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, described the Federation Account as “the backbone of Nigeria’s intergovernmental fiscal system.”
“Structural clarity in the remittance of nationally owned resources strengthens fiscal stability across all tiers of government,” AbdulRazaq said. “Predictability improves planning. Planning improves delivery.
The Governors’ Forum supports reforms that enhance transparency, reinforce constitutional alignment, and strengthen the collective capacity of governments to meet the needs of our growing population.”
The statement was issued by Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, Director, Media & Strategic Communications, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), and dated March 2, 2026.
The Forum reiterated that reforms aimed at strengthening fiscal coherence and reinforcing the constitutional framework governing resource ownership would ultimately benefit the entire Federation, adding that sustainable economic growth requires robust institutions, disciplined revenue management, and effective alignment between policy intent and operational execution.
LATE last year, precisely on December 28, a presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, wrote across his social media platforms that Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had departed to Europe as part of his end-of-year pleasure and winding down activities. The statement was not explicit that he would be on vacation. He hates the word ‘vacation’ because it might require him to transfer power to vice president Kashim Shettima, who is an orphan in the administration. The statement was as vague as they come, including the announcement that Tinubu would travel from ‘Europe’ to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates [UAE] in January to attend the annual Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week [ADSW 2026] Summit.
Onanuga’s statement was careful to emphasize that Tinubu’s planned attendance of ADSW 2026 was to honour an invitation that was apparently graciously extended to him by the president of UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
But there are issues surrounding the processes leading to the nebulous year-end activities and the detour from ‘Europe’ to UAE for a one-week stay. But the issues are not new, and they are not out of tune with the proclivities of Tinubu from his years as governor of Lagos State between 1999-2007.
The statement announcing Tinubu’s itinerary, which will be a blatant abuse of the use of that word ‘itinerary’, was deliberately vague, dismissive, and designed to demonstrate how much the presidency, the president himself, and his enablers hold Nigerians in utter contempt.
As president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is this country’s number one public figure. The statement said that he was departing for ‘Europe’ on December 28. The last time we checked, Europe was not a country, even if anyone is minded to stretch the concept of the European Union [EU].
If Tinubu planned in the course of his usual junckets abroad to visit more than one country on the continent of Europe, decency and accountability required that Nigerians whom he is supposed to be serving should be apprised of his movements. But no, not for Tinubu, and certainly not for his collaborators. He treats a majority of Nigerians as though they do not exist and do not matter.
Alone in the silence of an empty street, power fades and only the weight of the journey remains.
To this presidency, Nigerians are veritable ‘mumus’ who do not know the difference between a continent and the countries therein. And even if they know the difference, they have been so pauperised and castrated by the rulers’ policies and programmes to ask questions and to demand answers.
Tinubu’s indifference to, and contempt for, Nigerians has been evident for close to one generation. He was not different while he was the governor of Lagos State. He could pretend for all he cares, but he’s not a democrat. Contrary opinion counts for nothing in his politics. The receipts are in the public domain.
His braggadacio, not withstanding, Tinubu exhibits the traits of an insecure person. Here’s a man who craves adulation and public office but despises accountability to the people. Not many Nigerians imagined that after the years of the locusts that marked the presidency of the former head of state, the late Muhammadu Buhari, that Nigerians would yet be saddled with another man who regards the presidency as a trophy, and not a call to service that imposes a duty of care on the occupant. One of the Obamas [either Barack or Mitchell] once said that the presidency of the United States does not change its occupant. It reveals the person. That profound assertion was prior to the emergence of Donald Trump as America’s president. Trump 2.0 is unravelling.
The presidency of Nigeria revealed the person of Buhari – as incompetent, low on energy, clueless, sectarian, myopic, divisive, and a man with little or no redeeming feature. Buhari came, he saw, and he was overwhelmed and conquered. Some of us were surprised only by the magnitude of his spectacular failure.
Tinubu was an open book ever before he ascended to the presidency. There was not much waiting to be revealed about him. He said that becoming Nigeria’s president was his lifelong ambition. Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, he commanded his henchmen and supporters to “grab, snatch, and run” with ballot boxes and ostensibly the result sheets. His supporters dutifully went beyond the brief. They disrupted balloting in places suspected to be the stronghold of opposition political parties. On election day, they attacked and bloodied voters whom they feared would vote for candidates other than Tinubu. State security agencies played their own part in an alleged industrial scale electoral heist.
Earlier, during the stomping, Tinubu had declared that it was his turn to be coronated as president in his fraud- tainted and entitlement-laddened claim of “emi lo kan”.
Like Buhari, but from a different prism, the Nigerian presidency is also unmasking Tinubu – that he’s at best a pseudo-democrat if not a dictator, he’s unprepared for the job in spite of claims to the contrary, he may not really be in the best of health, he prefers to operate as a sole administrator or an emperor, he’s epicurean, he listens only to himself, he detests accountability, he delights in adulation and praise-singing, faces of citizens contorted by pains do not move him to sympathy and empathy, that he can only work with people from a section of his Yoruba nation, among other parochial considerations.
The other concerning aspects of his current end of year trip to ‘Europe’ has to do the Abu Dhabi leg this January. For the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week Summit, the presidency would rather treat it like the mystery of Tinubu’s travel to ‘Europe’ where nothing definite was disclosed. Not the country or countries he was travelling to; not the specific purposes of the visit beyond the claim of end-of-year activities; not how long he would be in ‘Europe’, or any other things for that matter.
Except for the cruise and the opportunity to ‘flex’ as we are wont to say on Nigerian streets, no serious president of any serious country, especially a country like ours which is in the lower rungs of the global development index should ever elect to waste one whole week in a foreign land for this kind of summit. In any case, we are not persuaded that the president is currently equipped with the necessary alertness, mental capacity, and requisite attention span to absorb the technical details and jargon of such a summit. We have seen the president at events at home and abroad, and his struggles to remain alert and follow conversations have been, to put it mildly, very embarrassing.
Furthermore, it was difficult to imagine that Nigeria’s president departed for ‘Europe’ hours after the US president, Donald Trump, ordered the American military to bomb alleged terrorists enclave in parts of Sokoto state in the north west region of our country. Tinubu behaves in a troubling manner. His behaviour can be likened to the case of “onye ulo ya na-agba oku ona achu oke,” or a home owner who is busy chasing rats while his home was being consumed by an inferno.
In a little over two years of this regime, one issue has dogged its leadership – persistent allegations of forgery. Somehow, a sentence on forgery and sundry shenanigans is deemed incomplete until the name of the president of Africa’s most populous country or the ruling APC is featured in it.
If any name is controversial, some people would be minded to use the name of the president to illustrate the unsavoury subject. If a certificate is suspected to be from the ‘Oluwole’ area of Lagos, instinctively, some Nigerians would allow their minds to wander to the same suspect. Why not, given that Tinubu and his team created their own bishops ahead of the 2023 election. By the way, ‘Oluwole’ is a byword for anything and everything fraudulent in our country.
When unknown persons suspected to be from the bureaucracy, the presidency and the national assembly [NASS] forged the 2024 budget with the insertion of strange items worth billions of Naira, it was difficult to exculpate the lead figure and the usual suspect. The same thing is currently playing out with the alleged forgery of the new and controversial tax laws, which came into effect on January 1.
The abduction of Maduro
It was bound to happen – the abduction of the president of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro, by the president of the United States, Donald Trump. It did happen last weekend. The pretext was drug trafficking by Maduro, but the quest was to seize the over 300 billion barrels of crude oil in the belly of Venezuela.
Trump framed the exercise as a ‘capture’, but it was not. It was a case of the abduction or kidnapping of another country’s head of state. Trump violated the US constitution and ignored international laws. He has said that he would run Venezuela for some time. This is curious coming from a man who bankrupted casinos as a private businessman. What Trump has succeeded in doing is turning the world’s order upside down. And made it less safe. The sovereignty of nations is now a myth and the United Nations a caricature. Might is now right. It will be a matter of time before China seized Taiwan, and Putin escalated his hunger for an imperial Russia to straddle Europe.
UGO ONUOHA, A Veteran Journalist, was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited
Vice-President Kashim Shettima
On Wednesday, Vice-President Kashim Shettima departed Abuja for Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to lend President Bola Tinubu’s unwavering support to the Super Eagles of Nigeria.
The spokesperson for the vice-president, Stanley Nkwocha, said this in a statement on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said Mr Shettima’s trip to Côte d’Ivoire was at the instance of Mr Tinubu.
The Super Eagles will take on South Africa in the semi-final of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
The match will be played at the Stade de la Paix in Bouake, Côte d’Ivoire later this evening.
According to Nkwocha, the visit will strengthen the deep-rooted connection between football and national identity in the country.
Mr Nkwocha said the vice-president’s presence would inspire the Super Eagles on the pitch and serve as a rallying point for millions of Nigerians cheering from their homes.
According to him, this year’s AFCON has seen the Super Eagles soar to new heights.
“With a dominant performance in the group stages and a thrilling victory in the quarter-final, they have established themselves as strong contenders for the title.
“With this being their 15th semi-final appearance, Nigeria holds the record for most appearances at this stage. They will be aiming to replicate their success in 2013 when they lifted the trophy in South Africa,” he said.
He further said Mr Shettima’s visit to Côte d’Ivoire would serve as a powerful call for national unity and support.
“As the Super Eagles prepare for their crucial semi-final match, Nigerians across the globe are urged to raise their voices and cheer their team. The entire nation stands behind the Super Eagles,” he said.
Reuben Abati, a Nigerian journalist, has offered unconventional advice to Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), following his call for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address concerns about his academic and identity records.
Speaking during a segment on Arise TV’s “The Morning Show,” Abati suggested that Obi should consider a career in evangelism.
Obi had on Wednesday conducted a press conference in Abuja, urging Tinubu to disclose his educational background and clarify matters related to his name change and participation in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) program.
Abati however criticized Obi’s approach, implying that it was driven more by a desire for media attention and publicity.
Abati emphasized that the appropriate forum for addressing electoral concerns is the court of law, as demonstrated by the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, who pursued legal action in his electoral dispute.
In response to Obi’s press conference, the All Progressives Congress (APC) affirmed that President Tinubu did not have an identity problem and dismissed Obi’s claims as a script contrived by Atiku Abubakar.
In a report released by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Wednesday, it has been revealed that there is no proof that President Bola Tinubu forged his academic record at Chicago State University (CSU).
This revelation comes in the midst of controversy surrounding Tinubu’s academic credentials.
Recently, Chicago State University had released and deposited Tinubu’s certificate to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, as requested by a US court in the context of the 2023 Nigerian presidential election.
While President Tinubu and his aides have consistently maintained the authenticity of his CSU certificate, Atiku’s camp had alleged that the certificate was falsified. However, the BBC’s Global Disinformation Team’s investigation has not found any conclusive evidence of forgery.
The BBC report stated that they contacted CSU for clarification, and the university expressed confidence in the veracity and integrity of their records concerning Tinubu’s attendance and graduation.
The report further highlights that there are three different versions of CSU certificates associated with Tinubu, including the original 1979 certificate, a second diploma submitted to the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), and another replacement diploma from the early 2000s, which was never collected by Tinubu.
Contrary to some allegations on social media, the BBC found that the phrase “with honours” does appear on Mr. Tinubu’s diploma from the early 2000s, which CSU authenticated during their investigation.
CSU’s registrar, Caleb Westberg, affirmed that changes in the diploma template over the years might explain differences in appearance. He also attested to the authenticity of Tinubu’s diploma during his deposition.
The BBC report concluded that CSU’s documents and Mr. Westberg’s statements confirm that President Tinubu graduated from CSU with honours, dispelling some of the doubts raised regarding his academic credentials.
