“Why Did You Call Out Tompolo? What of Those Collecting ₦2.7 Trillion Annually?” — Asari Dokubo

Tompolo Is Not the Whole Story: Who Else Is Feeding at Nigeria’s Oil Table?

Nigeria's oil industry is once again facing a question that goes beyond Tompolo.

It goes to the heart of who controls Nigeria's petroleum wealth, who gets paid from it, who authorises those payments and what Nigerians receive in return.

Niger Delta activist and former militant leader Asari Dokubo has thrown that question directly into the national conversation, challenging the attention being directed at Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.

His question is uncomfortable — and deliberately so:

“Why did you call out Tompolo? What of those collecting ₦2.7 trillion annually?”

The statement, if taken at face value, demands verification.

But even before the figure is established, the question behind it deserves scrutiny.

Who exactly is collecting Nigeria's money?

THE TOMPOLO DISTRACTION?

Tompolo has become a familiar name whenever Nigeria's pipeline surveillance and crude-oil security arrangements are discussed.

His role has attracted both praise and criticism.

Supporters argue that local security arrangements have contributed to protecting critical petroleum infrastructure and fighting crude theft in the Niger Delta.

Critics have questioned the cost, transparency and accountability of such arrangements.

Fine.

But here is the question:

Why should the national conversation stop at Tompolo?

If government expenditure in the petroleum sector is worthy of scrutiny, then every significant beneficiary should be placed under the same investigative microscope.

No exceptions.

No sacred cows.

No politically convenient targets.

₦2.7 TRILLION: THE NUMBER MUST BE PROVED OR DISPROVED

Dokubo's reference to ₦2.7 trillion annually is a claim that cannot simply be repeated as fact.

It must be investigated.

The institutions responsible for Nigeria's petroleum finances should be able to answer a straightforward question:

Does such a payment, or payments amounting to that figure, exist?

If yes:

Who receives it?

What is the contractual basis?

Who approved it?

Which government agency is responsible?

What service is being purchased?

For how many years?

What measurable results justify the expenditure?

And if the claim is false:

Where are the figures proving that it is false?

That is what serious accountability looks like.

Not propaganda.

Not counter-propaganda.

Records.

FOLLOW THE MONEY

For The Analyst, the most important part of this controversy is not the personality of Asari Dokubo.

It is the money.

Nigeria's petroleum industry operates around enormous financial flows involving crude production, lifting arrangements, security, surveillance, contracting, joint ventures, operating costs, royalties and government revenues.

The bigger the money, the stronger the demand for transparency.

A country struggling with debt, unemployment, insecurity and infrastructure deficits cannot afford a petroleum-sector environment where enormous public expenditures become matters of political speculation.

Every major payment should have a trail.

Every contract should have terms.

Every contractor should have measurable obligations.

Every payment should correspond to documented performance.

And every failed contract should have consequences.

THE QUESTION NIGERIANS SHOULD ASK

Suppose Tompolo's arrangement is completely legitimate.

Suppose every naira paid under his contract is properly authorised.

Suppose the arrangement is producing measurable results.

Then publish the evidence.

Let Nigerians see the contract.

Let them see the scope of work.

Let them see the amount committed.

Let them see what has been achieved.

Let independent auditors examine the figures.

There is nothing to fear from transparency when public money has been properly spent.

But the same principle must apply to every other major beneficiary of Nigeria's petroleum economy.

That is where Dokubo's challenge becomes much bigger than Tompolo.

WHO ARE THE REAL BENEFICIARIES OF NIGERIA'S OIL WEALTH?

For decades, Nigerians have heard the same promises.

More production.

Less theft.

More revenue.

More transparency.

More accountability.

Yet the fundamental question remains:

Where does the money go?

The Nigerian public has watched successive governments announce measures against crude theft while reports of illegal refining, pipeline vandalism and oil losses persist.

Citizens have watched oil-producing communities remain underdeveloped despite decades of petroleum extraction.

They have watched billions allocated to various interventions while basic services remain inadequate.

And they have repeatedly been told that the problem is somebody else.

The saboteur.

The thief.

The militant.

The contractor.

The previous administration.

The market.

The international community.

But perhaps Nigeria needs to ask a simpler question:

FOLLOW THE MONEY.

NO ONE SHOULD BE TOO POWERFUL TO AUDIT

If the Federal Government wants Nigerians to believe that its oil reforms are working, transparency must become measurable.

Publish the contracts.

Publish the beneficiaries.

Publish the amounts.

Publish the performance indicators.

Publish the audited results.

Let Nigerians compare expenditure with outcomes.

The era of asking citizens to trust government simply because government says so should be over.

Trust is earned through evidence.

AND WHAT ABOUT TOMPOLO?

There is nothing inherently wrong with investigating Tompolo, his companies, his contracts or his role in Nigeria's oil-security architecture if there are legitimate grounds for doing so.

Nobody receiving public money should be beyond scrutiny.

But that principle cuts both ways.

Tompolo cannot be the beginning and the end of the investigation.

If there are larger contracts, larger beneficiaries or larger financial arrangements within the petroleum sector, they deserve equal scrutiny.

If there are no such arrangements, government should say so and produce the evidence.

That is the difference between accountability and political theatre.

THE ANALYST INVESTIGATIVE POSITION

Asari Dokubo has raised a question.

He has not, by that statement alone, established the truth of the ₦2.7 trillion figure.

That distinction matters.

But the answer should not be another political speech.

It should be documentation.

If ₦2.7 trillion is being paid annually, Nigerians deserve to know where it goes.

If it is not, Nigerians deserve to know that too.

And if Tompolo is being scrutinised, then everyone else receiving substantial public money from Nigeria's oil economy should expect the same treatment.

Because ultimately, this is not about Tompolo.

It is not about Asari Dokubo.

It is not even about President Tinubu.

It is about Nigeria's oil.

And the question that has haunted the country for decades remains painfully simple:

WHO IS TAKING THE MONEY — AND WHAT ARE NIGERIANS GETTING FOR IT?

THE ANALYST ONLINE MEDIA

Strethening Investigative Journalism.