Business tycoon Tony Elumelu has revealed that former President Muhammadu Buhari and his late chief of staff, Abba Kyari, turned down a $2.5 billion offer from his company to acquire an oilfield during Buhari’s administration.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr. Elumelu disclosed that Heirs Holdings, his investment company, approached the Buhari administration in 2017 with the proposal. However, the offer was rejected, with the administration stating that they could not allow an oilfield of such “strategic importance” to be controlled by a private entity.

Mr. Elumelu, who also chairs UBA, expressed his bewilderment at the decision, stating that the purchase would have been from a foreign company. He later encountered firsthand the challenges facing Nigeria’s oil industry, particularly the rampant oil theft that has led many international oil companies to divest from onshore assets.

After acquiring a 45 percent stake in an oilfield three years ago, Mr. Elumelu’s company faced significant losses due to criminal gangs siphoning crude oil from pipelines, which eventually forced his company to halt production. His frustration with the situation led him to publicly question the government’s ability to tackle the issue in a 2022 tweet, where he lamented the loss of over 95 percent of oil production to thieves.

Mr. Elumelu has since called on the government and security agencies to identify those behind the oil theft, questioning how vessels could enter Nigeria’s territorial waters undetected.