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Suspend, probe Baru now CSJ tells Buhari
Centre for Social Justice, CSJ has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to immediately suspend the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru and institute investigation on the various weighty allegations levelled against him by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources.
Reacting to the controversy generated by Kachikwu’s letter to the President, Lead Director of CSJ, Mr. Eze Onyekpere, described the allegations against Baru as weighty and should not be treated with kids’ gloves. He said, “These allegations are weighty and if they are true, constitute serious crimes and acts of economic sabotage against the Nigerian people and the economy. It would not be difficult to establish if NNPC has held board meetings since Dr Maikanti Baru’s tenure and if meetings have been so held, the agenda of such meetings, finding out the person(s) who took decisions on appointments that were contrary to laid down procedures would also not be difficult to establish.
“Coming at a time the administration is prosecuting a war against corruption and seeking to enforce due process in the management of national resources, it is imperative that these allegations are thoroughly investigated. If a prima facie case is established, the offender(s) should be prosecuted and the full weight of the law brought to bear on them. Therefore, President Muhammadu Buhari should rise to the occasion, in the national interest and ensure that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission moves expeditiously to investigate these weighty allegations; consider suspending the alleged official(s) from office to avoid tampering with evidence and sabotaging investigations.”
He noted that it is imperative that the extant allegation is not swept under the carpet, otherwise, he said, the morality of continued prosecution of persons accused of lesser economic and financial crimes would become a subject for serious questioning.
According to him, Nigeria has only one set of laws which should apply across board in accordance with the tenets of justice which demands equality before the law, equal protection of the law and treating like cases alike. “In the past, many Nigerians have alleged that the federal administration remains silent when serious allegations are made against its key officials. CSJ recalls the grass cutting scandal involving the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the benumbing silence following the submission of the report of the Committee headed by the Vice President to President MuhammaduBuhari.
“We hope that law enforcement and investigation agencies would live up to the demands of their statutory and constitutional mandates,” he maintained.
Meanwhile the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN has faulted Ibe Kachikwu letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, describing it as diversionary and ridiculous.
IPMAN, in a statement in Abuja, signed by its National Secretary, Mr. Danladi Pasali, said Kachikwu’s grouse was because the NNPC boss refused to be turned into an errand boy by the Minister.
He said, “We noticed some attempt to divert attention on the achievements so far recorded in the sector, with the recent letter written by the Minister of State of Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu and leaked to media as the latest one among them. IPMAN consider the said letter as another attempt to divert the attention on the successes achieved and an invitation of chaos to the already sanitised sector.
“In the said letter the minister accused the NNPC management of insubordination, which we considered this statement as very ridiculous. As his position as chairman of NNPC board, the minister should have resolve any internal issue at the board meeting, not to resort to media war.
“We are not surprised that Baru was accused of insubordination by the minister, because if the GMD has allowed himself to become an errand boy to the minister just as some of the past GMDs
did, he would not have been accused of such.”
The group called on the President to disregard any attempt to scuttle the achievements in the downstream oil sector especially now, as according to them, some politicians would want to resort to saboteurs as the election year is approaching. IPMAN reiterated its support for the NNPC boss, stating that the Baru-led administration had been carrying out outstanding reforms which helped sanitised the downstream oil sector. It said, “Part of the reforms that Dr Baru’s team are executing which became a nightmare to some stakeholders like the minister and some labour unions, include the efficiency in petroleum products supply, appointing technocrats into right positions and sanitising the importation of petroleum products which stabilised fuel supply in the country within the last two years.
A new technology transfer agreement between the Nigeria–China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) and the Presidential Implementation Committee on Technology Transfer (PICTT) is expected to open more job opportunities, improve local skills, and expand access to advanced technology for ordinary Nigerians.
In a press statement reaching Vanguard on Friday, the MoU aims to strengthen industrial development, support local content, and create clearer pathways for Nigerians to benefit from China’s growing investments in the country.
PICTT Chairman, Dr Dahiru Mohammed, said the partnership will immediately begin coordinated programmes that support local participation in infrastructure and industrial projects.
Special Adviser to the President on Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr John Uwajumogu, said the deal will help attract high value investments that can stimulate job creation and strengthen Nigeria’s economy.
NCSP Head of International Relations, Ms Judy Melifonwu, highlighted that Nigerians stand to gain from expanded STEM scholarships, technical training, access to modern technology, and collaboration across key sectors including steel, agriculture, automobile parks, and cultural industries.
The NCSP Director-General reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to measurable results, noting that the partnership with PICTT will prioritise initiatives that deliver direct national impact.
The MoU signals a new phase of Nigeria–China cooperation focused on practical delivery, local content, and opportunities that improve everyday livelihoods.
EU regulators launched an antitrust investigation into Meta Platforms on Thursday over its rollout of artificial intelligence features in its WhatsApp messenger that would block rivals, hardening Europe’s already tough stance on Big Tech. The move, reported earlier by Reuters and the Financial Times, is the latest action by European Union regulators against large technology firms such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google as the bloc seeks to balance support for the sector with efforts to curb its expanding influence.
Europe’s tough stance – a marked contrast to more lenient U.S. regulation – has sparked an industry pushback, particularly by U.S. tech titans, and led to criticism from the administration of U. S. President Donald Trump. The European Commission said that the investigation will look into Meta’s new policy that would limit other AI providers’ access to WhatsApp, a potential boost for its own Meta AI system integrated into the platform earlier this year.
EU antitrust chief Teresa Ribera said the move was to prevent dominant firms from “abusing their power to crowd out innovative competitors”. She added interim measures could be imposed to block Meta’s new WhatsApp AI policy rollout. “AI markets are booming in Europe and beyond,” she said. This is why we are investigating if Meta’s new policy might be illegal under competition rules, and whether we should act quickly to prevent any possible irreparable harm to competition in the AI space.”
A WhatsApp spokesperson called the claims “baseless”, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms had put a “strain on our systems that they were not designed to support”, a reference to AI systems from other providers. “Still, the AI space is highly competitive and people have access to the services of their choice in any number of ways, including app stores, search engines, email services, partnership integrations, and operating systems.” The EU was the first in the world to establish a comprehensive legal framework for AI, setting out guardrails for AI systems and rules for certain high-risk applications in the AI Act.
Meta AI, a chatbot and virtual assistant, has been built into WhatsApp’s interface across European markets since March. The Commission said a new policy fully applicable from January 15, 2026, may block competing AI providers from reaching customers via the platform. Ribera said the probe came on the back of complaints from small AI developers about the WhatsApp policy. The Interaction Company of California, which has developed AI assistant Poke.com, has taken its grievance to the EU competition enforcer. Spanish AI startup Luzia has also talked to the Commission, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
Marvin von Hagen, co-founder and CEO of The Interaction Company of California, said if Meta was allowed to roll out its new policy, “millions of European consumers will be deprived of the possibility of enjoying new and innovative AI assistants”. Meta also risks a fine of as much as 10% of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching EU antitrust rules.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog opened a parallel investigation in July into allegations that Meta leveraged its market power by integrating an AI tool into WhatsApp, expanding the probe in November to examine whether Meta further abused its dominance by blocking rival AI chatbots from the messaging platform. The antitrust probe is a more traditional means of investigation than the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the bloc’s landmark legislation currently used to scrutinize Amazon’s and Microsoft’s cloud services for potential curbs. Reuters
The spouses and children of billionaires inherited more wealth in 2025 than in any previous year since reporting began in 2015, according to UBS’s Billionaire Ambitions Report published on Thursday. In the 12 months to April, 91 people became billionaires through inheritance, collectively receiving $298 billion, up more than a third from 2024, the Swiss bank said. “These heirs are proof of a multi-year wealth transfer that’s intensifying,” UBS executive Benjamin Cavalli said.
The report is based on a survey of some of UBS’s super-rich clients and a database that tracks the wealth of billionaires across 47 markets in all world regions. At least $5.9 trillion will be inherited by billionaire children over the next 15 years, the bank calculates.
Most of this inheritance growth is set to take place in the United States, with India, France, Germany and Switzerland next on the list, UBS estimated. However, billionaires are highly mobile, especially younger ones, which could change that picture, it added. The search for a better quality of life, geopolitical concerns and tax considerations are driving decisions to relocate, according to the report.
In Switzerland, where $206 billion will be inherited over the next 15 years according to the bank, voters on Sunday overwhelmingly rejected 50 per cent tax on inherited fortunes of $62 million or more, after critics said it could trigger an exodus of wealthy people.
Switzerland, the UAE, the U.S. and Singapore are among billionaires’ preferred destinations, UBS’s Cavalli said. “In Switzerland, Sunday’s vote may have helped to increase the country’s appeal again,” he said. Reuters
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