Who Is Really Running Nigeria?

By Kio Amachree

My experience and training tell me this man Gilbert Chagoury is running Nigeria. Everything points to it—the concentration of investment where his businesses are heavily entrenched.

I know he made a lot of money with Bola Tinubu when he was Governor of Lagos. Now, as President, he is cleaning up—making the millions he made with Sani Abacha look small.

Lebanon is too hot for him and his family, so it is Nigeria that makes the Chagourys their money—and that should bother every Nigerian.

I used to watch Gilbert Chagoury pass Ikoyi Club in an armoured salon car with a military escort. It infuriated me. A Lebanese man treated like a Nigerian Minister of State or an Army General—this was during the Abacha regime.

He was convicted in Switzerland for money laundering and had serious problems in the United States. Yet look at the treatment he gets in Nigeria. I would never get that kind of treatment in Lebanon, and I would never be handed multi-billion-naira contracts.

I have seen the Lebanese community attach themselves to the military. They target young officers with potential and groom them throughout their careers—until they rise to power, like Babangida and Abacha. These are not accidents. These are investments.

They speak Hausa, play the “black man role” to ingratiate themselves, yet they never allow their daughters to marry Nigerians, nor do they accept Nigerian wives into their families. Instead, they go back to Lebanon and bring wives from their own villages.

Let me be blunt—I have heard enough.

These people swagger around Lagos, especially at the polo club, tattoos showing, acting tough, rude to staff. I have told them to their faces—you are not that tough. If you were, you would not be here while Israel is bombing your homeland. You would not be ten thousand miles away taking refuge in Nigeria.

These are Chagoury’s people.

And yet he has been given one of Nigeria’s highest national honours. Every time I think about it, I get angry. How can a government honour a man with that background and still hand him billions in contracts?

He is calling the shots. He is the one organizing Tinubu’s offshore money in France. What does Tinubu know about France? He can hardly speak English, let alone French.

Lebanese networks are all over Paris. They cannot go home because of war, yet they boast quietly about how they control power in Nigeria.

Nigerians are sleeping.

These people are draining the country. Their compounds look and feel like Lebanon, not Nigeria. No integration. No loyalty. No commitment. Just control, extraction, and racism.

A Nigerian passport does not make a man Nigerian in loyalty.

Look at the global connections—Nigeria, France, America. Even into powerful families abroad. This is not random. This is a network.

And it is a security risk.

Groups like Hezbollah are part of the wider picture. People fleeing war zones embedding themselves in Nigeria, controlling money, contracts, and influence. Nigerians should be asking serious questions.

Billions upon billions have been made from Nigeria.

And what has Nigeria gained?

Nothing.

No loyalty.
No reinvestment.
No respect.

I have watched this for far too long in silence.

No more.

•Written By Kio Amachree