NLNG Dividends: Makinde Stands by His Claim, Demands Answers From Tinubu’s Government

Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has reaffirmed his allegation that states and local governments are being denied their rightful shares of dividends from Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG), challenging the Federal Government to provide a detailed account of how the funds were distributed.

The governor’s position follows a public disagreement with the Presidency over his claim that each state was expected to receive ₦250 billion from NLNG dividend proceeds, which he alleged were being withheld until after the 2027 general elections. The Presidency has rejected the allegation as false.

In a statement issued through his Special Adviser on Media, Dr Sulaimon Olanrewaju, on October 18, Makinde argued that the Presidency had failed to address the central question: whether all the money due to states and local governments had actually been distributed.

Makinde’s ₦9 trillion allegation

According to Makinde’s camp, a reconciliation exercise commissioned by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), with the Federal Government’s support, identified an alleged shortfall of approximately ₦9 trillion owed to states and local governments.

His media aide said the Federal Government had accepted the findings and that the report remained in the custody of both the Federal Government and the NGF. These are claims made by Makinde’s camp; the reconciliation report has not been independently examined in the cited public reporting.

Makinde’s camp questioned why the Presidency was emphasising NLNG’s cumulative dividend payments without providing a transaction-by-transaction account of how the money was allocated among the three tiers of government.

The governor’s team also asked what happened to the approximately $3 billion in dividends the Presidency said had been received since President Bola Tinubu assumed office.

Presidency insists the claim is false

The Presidency, through President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, dismissed Makinde’s claim, arguing that the figures did not align with the history of NLNG dividend payments or the Federation Account revenue-sharing formula.

According to the Presidency:

NLNG has paid approximately $21.5 billion in cumulative dividends to the Federation over about 25 years.

Less than $3 billion of that amount was received under the Tinubu administration.

States receive 26.72% of distributable Federation Account revenue under the formula cited by the Presidency.

Paying ₦250 billion to each of the 36 states would amount to ₦9 trillion. The Presidency argued that this would require NLNG to have made a single dividend payment exceeding its entire historical dividend contributions.

The Presidency therefore urged Nigerians to disregard Makinde’s allegation, maintaining that the claim was economically unrealistic.

What is the real issue?

The dispute involves two related but distinct questions.

First, how much did NLNG pay? The Presidency has cited the company’s cumulative dividend payments over its operating history.

Second, how much was due to each tier of government, and how much was actually distributed? Makinde’s camp argues that the cumulative figure does not answer this question and wants the relevant financial records published.

Premium Times reported that the Presidency’s response did not provide a transaction-by-transaction reconciliation of the specific proceeds in dispute or a breakdown of the amounts allegedly owed to individual states.

To resolve the disagreement, the relevant records would include NLNG dividend receipts, Federation Account credits, the applicable revenue-sharing calculations, FAAC decisions and payment records, as well as the reconciliation report cited by Makinde’s camp.