- Safiu Kehinde
Nigerian billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote, has called out the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, demanding to know where he got the money to pay an alleged sum of $5 million for his four children’s secondary school fees.
“I’ve heard actually people making complaints about a regulator who has actually put his children in secondary school and that secondary education, which is six years, four of them cost Nigeria $5 million.
“You can just imagine somebody paying $5 million for educating four children. Even my own children, they didn’t go to these schools. My children went to Nigerian secondary school. They don’t go outside Nigerian to attain secondary school education.
“We are taxpayers. When people are complaining, we also complain. The issue that when I pay tax, I want to see that my money is being put to use, not to be stolen.
“Today, as we speak, Mallam Farouq has four of his children that he educated in Switzerland at the cost of $5 million for their secondary school education alone- not university. And I know that one of them just finished Harvard.
“What kind of system are we operating that people are now busy destroying the country, taking money from the government? When you look at his income, his income does not match paying this kind of fees.
“If it is me that is paying $5 million for six for my four children, the taxman has to look at my taxes. How much I paid?” He said.
Dangote expressed readiness to join in the call for the NMDPRA boss prosecution by the highest authority.
He held that the Farouk must provide explanation to Nigerians on where he got the money from.
“This is something we are not going to allow to continue. We will take it up to the highest authority so that they will look at it.
“People who have done something wrong must be prosecuted.
“I cannot understand why somebody who his worked all his life in government and he has four children that he has paid $5 million.
“I’ve seen that people have taken this cause and nobody is listening to them. We will join them to make sure this is done properly.
“The man must come and explain to Nigerians how he paid $5 million for six years if his four children’s education. And I don’t think if anyone of you has actually paid that kind of fees for your own children.
We can’t allow this continue. We must make sure that people don’t come and destroy the country just because “they want to make a living that is not genuine.
“For somebody to have this sort of money he must be supported by people. He should come out and tell people how he made the $5 million.
“When these questions are answered, before we go to the court, he should come out and reply. This is what we have seen, and I think we must make sure that this downstream must not be destroyed by one single person because of personal interest.”