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Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, has accused former President Muhammadu Buhari of obstructing his efforts to acquire an oil field.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Elumelu discussed a controversial decision made by the previous administration.
He claimed that since 2017, he had been pursuing the purchase of the oil field and had secured $2.5 billion for the deal.
However, Buhari, along with his late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, allegedly blocked the transaction.
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Elumelu was reportedly told that Nigeria could not allow a private entity to control something of such strategic significance, a stance he found illogical given that the field was being bought from a foreign company.
He said:
“We would have been purchasing it from a foreign company, so why was it such an issue?”
Tony Elumelu, who also serves as the chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), highlighted that his company's proposal went beyond a simple business deal. He stressed that it represented an opportunity to strengthen Nigeria’s economy by keeping important assets within the nation.
He added:
“We wanted to become a Fortune 500 company and we estimated what we needed. It’s not naira, it’s huge dollars. Energy security is crucial for a country that doesn’t produce enough electricity for its roughly 200 million citizens.”Source: Legit.ng