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By Oscar Okhifo
Billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote has escalated his public dispute with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), accusing its Chief Executive Officer, Farouk Ahmed, of living beyond his legitimate income and spending millions of dollars on his children’s foreign education.
This is as the Joint House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream and Midstream) has summoned both parties to a meeting in a bid to halt the escalating public spat.
Dangote made the allegations while speaking at a press conference at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery Ibeju-Lekki, where he accused the leadership of the NMDPRA of economic sabotage that he said was undermining domestic refining in Nigeria.
According to Mr Dangote, the continued issuance of petroleum import licences by the regulator, despite growing local refining capacity, was allegedly designed to frustrate domestic refiners.
He claimed that senior officials of the NMDPRA were colluding with international oil traders and importers to sustain fuel imports at the expense of local production.
He added that the alleged conduct had raised serious concerns about conflict of interest and the credibility of regulatory oversight in the downstream petroleum sector, insisting that such actions undermined fair competition and Nigeria’s broader energy security objectives.
In a statement signed on Monday, Mr Dangote claimed that the NMDPRA chief executive spent over $5 million on secondary education for his four children in Switzerland.
He listed the children and their schools as Faisal Farouk (Montreux School), Farouk Jr. (Aiglon College), Ashraf Farouk (Institute Le Rosey), and Farhana Farouk (La Garenne International School), stating that each child spent about six years in the schools.
According to Mr Dangote, the estimated cost of tuition, air tickets and upkeep per child was about $200,000 annually, amounting to $800,000 per year for the four children.
He added that total living expenses over six years were estimated at $1.2 million per child, bringing the combined cost to about $4.8 million.
“The approximate total fees for tuition and upkeep is $5,000,000,” Mr Dangote claimed.
He further alleged that Mr Ahmed spent an additional $2 million on tertiary education for the four children over four years.
According to him, tuition and associated expenses were estimated at $125,000 per annum, totaling $500,000 per child.
Mr Dangote also claimed that one of the children, Faisal, completed a Harvard MBA in 2025, at a cost of $150,000 for tuition and $60,000 for upkeep, air tickets and other incidentals, amounting to $210,000.
Mr Dangote questioned the source of the funds used for these expenditures, citing the prevailing economic hardship in the NMDPRA chief executive’s home state.
“Nigerians deserve to know the source or sources of these sums of money paid by a public officer while many parents in his home state of Sokoto cannot afford to pay N10,000 school fees for their children and wards,” he said.
So far, efforts to reach Mr Ahmed for comments were unsuccessful.