Feature/OPED
Chris Ngige Fights for Oppressive ExxonMobil Instead of Nigerian Workers
By Femi Aribisala
Last week, I complained that 860 Nigerian workers at ExxonMobil (Nigeria) are being treated like orphans in Nigeria, their home-country. They have fought this injustice with fortitude and resilience in the courts for 18 long years, during which 171 of them died along the way (one more since last week).
In court, ExxonMobil denied that the workers are its employees. It claimed instead that they are “SPY Police”, in the attempt to circumvent its lawful commitments to them. The Nigerian workers, on the other hand, maintained they were directly employed by ExxonMobil and, therefore, should be treated as ExxonMobil staff.
This case has gone all the way to the Supreme Court of Nigeria. In April 2018, the Supreme Court finally rejected ExxonMobil’s denials outrightly. It affirmed that the Nigerian workers are bona fide staff of ExxonMobil. Therefore, it ruled that they are entitled to every benefit applicable to other ExxonMobil personnel in other departments of the company and must be paid accordingly.
However, instead of abiding by this verdict of the apex court of Nigeria, ExxonMobil took the outrageous step of sacking 507 of the workers in one day; locking them all out of its building.
When the workers protested by picketing ExxonMobil outfits, the multinational had the audacity to take to the Industrial Court of Nigeria the same matter that had already been adjudicated by the Supreme Court. The Industrial Court also threw out ExxonMobil’s case, affirming the right of the workers to picket. Nevertheless, ExxonMobil has refused to budge.
I said last week: “This kind of arrogance by a foreign company should not be allowed to prevail in Nigeria. What is Chris Ngige, the minister of Labour and Employment doing? The message must be sent to ExxonMobil loud and clear that, as long as it is operating within the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it must be subject to Nigerian laws. It cannot operate here in Nigeria as a law unto itself.”
Betrayal
However, the message Chris Ngige delivered to ExxonMobil loud and clear is that it does not have to be subject to Nigerian laws. It can operate here in Nigeria as a law unto itself.
Instead of fighting for the rights of the Nigerian workers in Nigeria, Chris Ngige, the minister for Labour and Employment, is fighting for the rights of ExxonMobil, a foreign multinational in Nigeria.
On the very day my article was published last week, Chris Ngige, convened a hurried meeting of the parties in the dispute. However, rather than tell ExxonMobil it has to obey the verdict of the Supreme Court, he presented a settlement package contravening the position of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court said the Nigerian workers should not regarded as “SPY Police” but as bona fide Exxon Mobil employees. But Ngige said they should be regarded as “SPY Police.” This means they would be paid based on police or civil service structures, instead of those of an international oil company. He then gave the workers 48 hours to stop their protest before any of the so-called benefits he itemised for them can be paid.
Foreign Agent
Contrary to what has been presented in ExxonMobil newspaper advertorials and in the circular of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the representatives of the striking workers have rejected in totality this one-sided intervention of Chris Ngige.
“It is unfortunate that a serving minister in Nigeria has joined forces with a foreign firm (Mobil) to deny Nigerians of our deserved benefits. The collaboration of the minister and Mobil is certainly that of corruption. President Buhari’s avowed stance against corruption must be brought to the fore here!”
One of the striking workers said: “Dr Ngige is not our employer nor have we applied to work in the Ministry of Labour, therefore, our benefits cannot be packaged by him or the Ministry headed by him. Our representatives haven’t signed any document because those pronounced packages by the minister are not in line with Mobil’s policy. We therefore resent, reject and discard such package by Mobil and the minister of Labour.”
“For over 30 years we have been governed by ExxonMobil policies, guidelines, rules and company laws. So, we cannot be separated by a Civil Service Rule conceived by Mobil and implemented (planned) by the Nigeria’s minister of Labour. The separation benefits as mentioned by Mobil and the minister are unacceptable to us because Mobil bluntly refused to execute the judgement of the Apex Court of Nigeria.”
This immediately raises certain fundamental questions. What exactly is the job description of a Nigerian minister of Labour and Employment? How does the honourable minister, Chris Ngige, understand the requirements of his job?
Is a Nigerian minister of Labour and Employment supposed to fight for a foreign multinational in Nigeria against the interests of Nigerian workers; or is he expected to fight for Nigerian workers against a foreign multinational? Does a Nigerian minister have the right or the power to contravene a decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria?
These questions are rhetorical because the answers are obvious. Chris Ngige as minster of Labour and Employment must fight to protect oppressed Nigerian workers against oppressive multinationals like ExxonMobil. Chris Ngige is duty-bound to promote employment in Nigeria and not to preside over the indiscriminate dismissal of hundreds of Nigerian workers by a prejudicial company. Chris Ngige has no right whatsoever to contravene a decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria; one that the workers fought for tooth and nail to obtain over a period of 18 years.
If Chris Ngige cannot fulfill the basic requirements of his job as minister of Labour and Employment, he should resign.
Enemy of the People
What happens to Nigerians when we come to positions of power? Why are we so quick to forget our roots? Why do we so easily betray our own people? Why do we give preferential treatment to foreigners and discriminate against our own people, Nigerians, in our own land?
Chris Ngige is an honourable man. I know people who vouch for him. They claim to know him from his earlier humble beginnings. Some claimed to have been his neighbours when he allegedly lived in 1004 estate in Victoria Island, Lagos.
We watched as the grace of God took him to the position of governor of Anambra State. We rallied to his support when he suffered persecution, even in that exalted position. When he broke ranks with his political godfather, Chris Uba, an attempt was made to kidnap and remove him from office unlawfully. A counterfeit letter of resignation from him was presented to the State legislature. We all rallied to his support on the grounds that such grand larceny should not hold in Nigeria.
Ngige went on to be one of the best governors in Nigeria. He has a legacy of populist programmes, particularly in the area of road construction. However, his stint as governor was truncated by an election tribunal that nullified his 2003 victory. Ngige appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal, but the annulment of his victory was upheld.
What happened is that Ngige became minister of Labour and Employment and, judging by his recent action with regard to the matter of ExxonMobil and its Nigerian security detail, forgot his roots.
Ngige accepted the verdict of the courts in good faith. Why can’t the same Ngige insist that ExxonMobil must accept the verdict of the Nigerian Supreme Court? What happened to the Ngige of old who was a darling of Anambrarians and Nigerians? What happened to the Ngige who the people went on to elect as senator of Anambra Central?
What happened is that Ngige became minister of Labour and Employment and, judging by his recent action with regard to the matter of ExxonMobil and its Nigerian security detail, forgot his roots.
It would appear that the honourable minister has become another Adams Oshiomhole who was an energetic president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, fighting for the rights of Nigerian workers. But when he became governor of Edo, Oshiomhole, also forgot and denied his roots. When a poor woman selling “peanuts” by the roadside appealed to him not to have her livelihood confiscated, Oshiomhole told her to “go and die.”
ExxonMobil Apartheid
ExxonMobil is one of the most successful companies in the world, if not the most successful. But in Nigeria, it is notorious for maltreating its Nigerian staff. Most of them are disgruntled, but they cannot complain for fear of being sacked. Some years back, the company imposed salary cuts of 10 to 15 per cent on its workers, on the grounds that there was a decline in oil prices. Since then, it has refused to go back to the earlier salary-structure. One of the workers said to me: “You don’t ask for increment in ExxonMobil or you will be sacked.”
ExxonMobil operates an apartheid policy between its contract staff and its regular employees. On the company bus, regular employees are given priority seating. Contract staff have leprosy. They are not allowed to seat with regular employees. They cannot even enter ExxonMobil buildings before the regular employees. So many benefits are denied them.
Some worked for ExxonMobil for over 20 years as contract staff, never confirmed as regular staff so that ExxonMobil could continue to deny them the full entitlements of regular staff. With the fear of the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which stipulates that contract staff should not be left hanging without being offered full employment after two years, ExxonMobil now has the policy of firing all its contract staff within two years. The same contract staff are then re-employed, so that on paper they are presented as new contract employees. This ensures they are not entitled to company benefits indefinitely, not even maternity leave.
ExxonMobil routinely fires its Nigerian staff without any notice. It fires some by email with immediate effect. Once fired, you are barred from the company’s offices and facilities. You are simply locked out. This is what happened to its security details. It invited them to a decoy meeting in an outside hotel. It then told them to expect an email from the company. When they came back from the meeting, they had been locked out of their stations. They were not even allowed to collect the belongings they left behind.
Then there is the discrimination between whites and blacks. They call the whites experts, pay them more with mouth-watering benefits, while the Nigerians are given second-class positions. But then the so-called experts have to rely on the Nigerians to tell them what to do.
Inside ExxonMobil, Nigerians with full status are pitched against contract-staff Nigerians in a classic policy of divide-and-rule. Outside the company, ExxonMobil relies on the Chris Ngiges of Nigeria to be its advocate in government in order to keep its Nigerian workers down.
I leave the final word to one of the striking Nigerian workers: “It is unfortunate that a serving minister in Nigeria has joined forces with a foreign firm (Mobil) to deny Nigerians of our deserved benefits. The collaboration of the minister and Mobil is certainly that of corruption. President Buhari’s avowed stance against corruption must be brought to the fore here!”
By Blaise Udunze
Daily, the world watches Nigeria through a familiar lens in what appears to be a gory situation. Especially in cases when the news headlines tell stories of farmer-herder clashes, bandit attacks, kidnappings, villages reduced to ashes or deserted by the dwellers, as thousands of Nigerians have been displaced across states such as Zamfara, Plateau, Benue, Niger, Kaduna and Nasarawa. Subliminally, this is about to become a similarly ugly occurrence in southwestern Nigeria, which is fast becoming obvious if not nipped in the bud quickly.
Recorded data have shown that bandits, Boko Haram, and others killed over 190,000 Nigerians in 17 years and displaced 3.7 million people.
A human rights organisation, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), in its fearful revelation, has said that no fewer than 190,150 Nigerians have been killed by bandits, Boko Haram insurgents, and suspected armed herdsmen between July 2009 and March 19, 2026, as this calls for concern.
The dominant explanations often point to ethnic tensions, religious divisions, climate change, shrinking grazing routes or weak security institutions. No doubt, those factors are certainly part of Nigeria’s complex security crisis. Yet another question deserves serious examination.
What if, in some locations, the violence is also serving another purpose? What if some of the territories experiencing repeated displacement are the same places sitting atop some of Nigeria’s most valuable mineral deposits? More importantly, if such a pattern exists, who benefits when communities disappear?
Of a truth, these questions are uncomfortable, but undeniably they deserve careful investigation rather than dismissal.
For ages, Nigeria has been naturally endowed, and it is estimated to be rich in enormous significant reserves of gold, lithium, uranium, tin, columbite and other strategic minerals increasingly sought after in the global transition to clean energy technologies. As international demand for battery minerals continues to rise, these resources have become far more valuable than they were only a decade ago.
If one overlays publicly available geological information with maps showing persistent violence, some observers argue that striking geographical overlaps appear in several regions. Such overlaps alone cannot establish causation. Correlation is not proof of conspiracy. However, they raise questions worthy of independent scrutiny.
One issue attracting increasing attention and adequately yearns for answer is whether prolonged insecurity may inadvertently or deliberately create conditions that make mineral extraction easier.
Under Nigeria’s Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007, mineral resources belong to the Federal Government, while mining rights are granted through licences and leases. Community engagement and land access are expected to form part of the licensing process, although implementation varies depending on circumstances. This raises an important policy question.
What happens when the communities expected to participate in those processes have already fled because of violence?
Displacement changes the dynamics of land ownership, consent and access. While no evidence automatically proves that attacks are orchestrated to facilitate mining, the sequence of violence followed by renewed commercial activity in some locations deserves closer examination by regulators, lawmakers and investigative journalists.
In conflict studies, researchers have long observed that wars often generate economic winners alongside humanitarian losers. Could elements of Nigeria’s insecurity also be producing economic beneficiaries?
Reports over the years have documented concerns about illegal mining operations across parts of northern Nigeria. Government agencies themselves have repeatedly acknowledged that criminal networks profit from the country’s vast mineral wealth. The unresolved question is whether isolated criminality has, in some instances, evolved into more sophisticated alliances involving political influence, financial interests and international supply chains. If so, the implications extend far beyond Nigeria.
Invariably, it is clearly known that lithium has become one of the world’s most strategic commodities, powering electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage systems. Gold has always remained one of the safest global investment assets during periods of uncertainty. Meanwhile, it is well confirmed that the global appetite for these minerals creates enormous financial incentives.
Suppose violent displacement reduces resistance to extraction. Suppose shell companies subsequently acquire mining interests. Suppose minerals then leave Nigeria through legitimate-looking export documentation while their true value remains understated.
These scenarios remain allegations unless supported by verifiable evidence. Yet they outline a framework that investigators may wish to test rather than ignore. Financial crime experts frequently identify trade mis-invoicing as one of the most common methods of illicit financial flows worldwide.
Could Nigeria’s solid minerals sector be vulnerable to similar practices? If valuable lithium ore is deliberately but inaccurately described as lower-value material on export documents, substantial wealth could potentially leave the country without reflecting its true market value. Likewise, if unrefined gold exits through privileged channels with limited scrutiny, questions naturally arise about oversight, transparency and accountability over criminal activities which have continued to stunt and disrupt the country’s socio-economic growth and at the same time cause carnage.
Such possibilities are not accusations against any particular institution or company. Rather, they illustrate why stronger monitoring systems are increasingly essential. Another question concerns logistics.
With the high level of criminal activities, industrial mining requires heavy machinery, diesel supplies, transportation networks and specialised personnel. These are not operations that can remain invisible indefinitely.
If certain territories are genuinely too dangerous for security agencies, how do industrial-scale extraction activities reportedly continue in some remote locations? If they do, who protects those operations? Who authorises their movement? Who verifies what is extracted? Who ensures royalties and export revenues reach public coffers? These are governance questions that demand institutional answers.
Equally important is the international dimension. Minerals extracted in Nigeria ultimately enter global supply chains. Gold may pass through international refining hubs before entering financial markets. Lithium may become part of battery manufacturing destined for electric vehicles, which are being sold across Europe, North America and Asia.
One known fact is that consumers purchasing products containing these minerals rarely know the full story of where they originated.
Increasingly, however, investors and governments are demanding ethical sourcing standards that trace minerals from extraction to final manufacture.
A critical factor that must be taken into cognisance is that if insecurity is creating opportunities for illegal or unethical extraction anywhere in the world, multinational companies have responsibilities alongside national governments, of which the onus falls on the Nigerian government.
Transparency cannot stop at the mine gate. Nor should accountability end at national borders. Another issue requiring attention concerns beneficial ownership.
Across many jurisdictions, shell companies can obscure the identities of individuals ultimately controlling commercial assets. If politically exposed persons or powerful business interests are hidden behind complex corporate structures registered offshore, identifying beneficiaries becomes significantly more difficult. This challenge is hardly unique to Nigeria.
Findings showed that from Latin America to Central Africa and Southeast Asia, resistant corporate networks have frequently complicated efforts to combat corruption and illicit resource extraction. That is precisely why open corporate registries, beneficial ownership databases and transparent mining licence disclosures are becoming global governance priorities. For Nigeria, the stakes could hardly be higher.
The country stands at the centre of the world’s emerging critical minerals economy. The Nigerian government can’t feign ignorance of the fact that, when handled transparently, these resources could finance infrastructure, education, healthcare, and industrial development for generations.
In no way would the government claim not knowing that when handled poorly, they risk becoming another chapter in the well-documented “resource curse,” where extraordinary natural wealth coincides with persistent poverty, insecurity and institutional weakness.
The ultimate challenge, therefore, is not simply about mining. It is about governance. It is about whether public institutions possess both the independence and capacity to ensure that natural resources benefit citizens rather than narrow interests. It is about whether conflict zones receive genuine peacebuilding efforts instead of becoming forgotten frontiers. And it is about whether international markets demand accountability with the same enthusiasm they demand raw materials.
None of these questions should be answered through speculation. They require rigorous investigations, forensic financial analysis, satellite imagery, mining license audits, customs records, beneficial ownership disclosures and courageous journalism.
They require governments willing to open their books. They require international cooperation capable of tracing money across borders. Most importantly, they require asking questions that have too often remained unasked.
Perhaps Nigeria’s security crisis is exactly what it appears to be: a tragic convergence of historical grievances, weak institutions, criminality and environmental pressures. Or perhaps, in some places, another layer of economic incentive deserves closer scrutiny.
Until those questions are thoroughly investigated, one possibility will continue to linger. Maybe the world’s attention has been fixed on the blood spilt above ground, while too little attention has been paid to the extraordinary wealth lying beneath it.
Blaise, a journalist and PR professional, writes from Lagos and can be reached via: bl***********@***il.com
Feature/OPED
What Does Nigeria’s $51bn Reserves Milestone Mean if Most New Foreign Money Can Leave Quickly?
Nigeria’s foreign reserves have climbed to about $51 billion, a decade-plus high, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). EBC Financial Group (EBC) notes that this reflects stronger investor confidence, but the second half may show whether it holds, as the build rests on three cyclical drivers: oil earnings, short-term foreign money and a narrowing official-to-street naira gap.
Reserves rose from about $32 billion in April 2024, during a dollar shortage, to about $51 billion now, near the CBN’s target. Much came from two cyclical sources, strong oil earnings and money chasing high-yielding naira assets, so EBC expects the pace to slow or reverse. Fitch Ratings, a major international credit rating agency, expects a marginal decline to about $47 billion by the end of 2026, citing higher spending and external pressures.
David Precious, Senior Market Analyst at EBC Financial Group, said, “Nigeria’s reserve build is real but may not be durable yet, because nearly all of the new money is the kind that can leave quickly. Of the $10.37 billion that came in over the first quarter, the overwhelming majority was short-term portfolio funds rather than long-term investment, so a shift in oil prices, global interest rates or confidence in the naira might pull a large part of it straight back out.”
Most New Money Can Still Leave Quickly
The composition of the foreign inflows explains the caution over how long the build can last. The country attracted $10.37 billion in foreign investment in the first quarter of 2026, up 83.83 per cent year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Of that, $9.86 billion or 95.09 per cent, was portfolio money, largely short-term naira debt such as Treasury bills that investors can sell at the next auction, while foreign direct investment, the long-term kind that builds factories and jobs, was $135.08 million, or 1.30 per cent. Put simply, of each dollar coming in, about 95 cents can leave quickly, and barely one cent stays.
That money supports reserves while it stays. Dollars brought in to buy naira assets add to market supply, letting the CBN hold more reserves and steady the naira. It leaves when conditions change. Nigeria earns most of its export dollars from oil and gas, so lower oil prices mean fewer dollars, and as a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), it cannot simply produce more, output capped by quota and reduced by theft and ageing fields. Higher global interest rates draw money toward safer returns abroad, and a weakening naira prompts investors to sell early. When oil fell in 2016 and 2020, foreign investors withdrew and could not convert naira to dollars as supply dried up, leaving the CBN to clear more than $7 billion in trapped obligations into 2024.
The Oil Boost is No Longer Certain
Oil looked like a dependable source of the dollars behind the reserves only months ago. Earlier in 2026, concern over disruption around the Strait of Hormuz lifted crude prices, and stronger receipts flowed in, with crude oil export earnings of $8.11 billion in the first quarter in the CBN’s balance-of-payments data. That support is now easing. The tension has subsided, and Brent traded near $72 on June 29, down about 24 per cent over the month, back to pre-conflict levels. With the price boost gone and output constrained, reserves are more exposed, leaning on non-oil earnings and investor patience rather than oil.
The Naira Still Trades at Two Prices
The naira has traded at two prices, an official rate and a higher parallel-market rate, and closing that gap into one trusted price is what many investors might watch most. Before committing funds, they may want assurance they can convert naira to dollars at a fair rate when they exit, and a wide gap revives the fear of being trapped that lingers from earlier shortages. The gap has narrowed to roughly N20 to N30, with the CBN’s official rate near N1,380 per dollar on June 26 against parallel-market quotes around N1,400. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2026 Article IV review urged Nigeria to depend less on this fast-moving portfolio money and to keep phasing out its multiple exchange-rate practices. The CBN’s Foreign Exchange Manual, in force from 1 June, is intended to make the market clearer, though such rules build confidence only once investors can freely trade dollars at the posted rate.
What could Make the Build Durable
A few signs that may show the build turning durable include a smaller gap between the official and street naira rates, more long-term foreign investment, and steadier oil earnings. A gap that stays small, now roughly N20 to N30, may mean investors trust the official rate and no longer need the street market. A clear rise in foreign direct investment, only $135 million last quarter against $9.86 billion of short-term money, might mean lasting capital is replacing funds that can leave at the next auction. Oil earnings that hold up, rather than sliding from the low $70s, should help keep reserves steady, since oil and gas bring in most of Nigeria’s export dollars.
“Reserves built on money chasing high yields can fall as fast as they rose, as they did after the last two oil shocks, when investors left, and the CBN spent years clearing a foreign-exchange backlog,” Precious added. “What holds through a downturn is slower money, direct investment, steady oil and non-oil export earnings and one credible naira rate, and that is the shift Nigeria has yet to make.”
By Olajumoke Bello
Across Nigeria, small and medium enterprises remain the backbone of economic activity. They drive trade, create jobs, and sustain millions of livelihoods. Yet, despite their importance, many SMEs continue to operate below their full potential due to persistent structural challenges.
Access to finance remains one of the most cited constraints. However, the issue today goes beyond the availability of capital. Many businesses struggle with financial readiness, weak documentation, and limited understanding of what lenders require. This often leads to missed opportunities, even when funding options exist.
At the same time, SMEs face gaps in market access and visibility. Business owners operate in highly localised environments, with limited exposure to broader networks that can unlock partnerships, new markets, and growth opportunities. This isolation can constrain scalability and reduce long-term competitiveness.
Equally important is the capability gap. Many entrepreneurs grow through resilience and experience but lack structured knowledge on critical areas such as financial management, export readiness, and digital adoption. Without this, even well-capitalised businesses can struggle to sustain growth.
These challenges point to a clear need for a more practical and integrated approach to SME support. It is no longer sufficient to offer standalone solutions. SMEs require ecosystems that combine knowledge, access, and direct engagement in ways that reflect how they actually operate.
A key shift is the move from centralised interventions to localised engagement. SMEs are deeply influenced by their immediate environments, whether markets, industrial clusters, or trade corridors. Solutions must therefore be brought closer to where these businesses function, allowing for more relevant support and stronger relationships.
Another important shift is from awareness to action. Business owners do not only need information; they need insights that they can apply immediately. This includes understanding how to structure their finances, how to access trade opportunities, and how to connect with the right partners to scale their operations.
There is also a growing need for continuity. Many SME-focused initiatives deliver strong initial impact but lack follow-through. For support to be effective, it must extend beyond one-off engagements into sustained relationships, with clear pathways for onboarding, advisory, and growth.
For financial institutions, this presents both responsibility and an opportunity. Supporting SMEs now requires moving beyond transactional banking to deeper partnership models. It requires understanding businesses at a granular level and co-creating solutions that evolve with their needs.
At Stanbic IBTC, this perspective continues to shape our approach to SME development. Our focus is on delivering practical support that translates into real business outcomes, helping enterprises grow, compete, and contribute more meaningfully to the economy.
As part of this commitment, we are extending our SME engagement to the regions through the Nigeria Business Summit Regional Tour. The tour will take structured, on-ground activations into key commercial hubs, where SMEs can access funding guidance, trade insights, advisory support, and direct engagement with financial experts.
The regional tour will take place across five strategic locations, bringing these solutions closer to business owners in Aba, Onitsha, Ibadan and Kano.
This approach reflects an important principle. When support moves closer to businesses and when solutions are delivered in ways that are practical and continuous, SMEs are better positioned to grow sustainably. In turn, this strengthens not only individual enterprises but the broader economy.
Olajumoke Bello is the Head of Enterprise Banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank
