There is a reason why the PhD is titled "Doctor of Philosophy." Philosophy is a discipline of rigor and gravity. Among...
There is a reason why the PhD is titled "Doctor of Philosophy." Philosophy is a discipline of rigor and gravity. Among its many virtues, it is meant to compel one to think, act, and write with the clarity of a philosopher. But what does it take to truly embody that pattern? It requires a commitment to intellectual integrity that borders on the sacred. Regardless of which philosophical school one leans toward, the minimum expectation is that objectivity, rationality, and a commitment to truth be adequately reflected in one's public discourse.
This premise is prompted by an article written by one Professor Shehu A. Goni, which serves as an overt promotion of Mr. Bala Wunti for the governorship of Bauchi State. Every citizen, professor or not, has the right to support any candidate. However, I wish the author had simply signed his name without appending his professorship. Had he done so, no serious observer would have felt the need to respond; it would have been dismissed as mere public relations. But when a professor entitles an article "A Case for Competence," he invites those of us who operate in this space to dissect the argument.
Whether written with the aid of AI or not, the opening statements are undeniably inspiring. The Professor asks: “Should the next governor emerge from the well-worn ranks of career politics, or from a different tradition entirely—one shaped by systems, delivery, and measurable outcomes?”
It is important to state that I do not know Bala Wunti personally, nor have I ever met him; therefore, I am not in a position to assess his private character. What I do know, however—because it is firmly in the public domain—is the track record of the institution where he spent his career: the behemoth known as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
I challenge any public relations firm in the world to alter the horrendous image of the NNPC using actual facts and figures. To examine its history is to encounter a DNA encoded with bad governance, corruption, ineptitude, and crass negligence. From investigative books and international monitors to civil society reports and EFCC probes, the "Grand Corruption" of the NNPC is well-documented. It features prominently in scandals involving oil theft, economic crimes, and the sabotage of private investors. This is the institution from which Bala Wunti emerges—a system that refused to fix refineries while plundering billions in "rehabilitation" funds.
The Public Record: Allegations and Investigations
In just 2025, Bala Wunti became the subject of intense scrutiny following allegations of systematic corruption, grand corruption, and economic sabotage. Institutional sources and civil society groups have linked him to several high-profile investigations:
Procurement Fraud and Sabotage: The Community Development Committees (CDC) of the Niger Delta petitioned the EFCC to prosecute Wunti for "economic sabotage." Reports indicate that he allegedly orchestrated a scheme to inflate yearly "cash call" budgets, adding as much as $4 per barrel to actual costs—a primary driver behind the high cost of crude production in Nigeria.
Refinery "Quick-Fix" Probe: Wunti’s name surfaced in investigations involving the alleged diversion of funds intended for the rehabilitation of state-owned refineries. Despite payments totaling billions of dollars, these refineries are non-functional.
Financial Scrutiny: Investigations by the EFCC’s Special Investigation Unit have reportedly pursued the freezing of bank accounts linked to the "Wunti group" following the discovery of "unexplained wealth" and suspicious financial inflows that do not align with official remuneration.
The above are summaries, but in some serious countries, these allegations would be tried as treason and not corruption. The corrupt steal from the state. These allegations are things that undermine the state. They weaken the state to a grave level.
The Professor cites Wunti’s impressive list of titles—Production Programming Officer, Head of Market Research, Senior Adviser to five GMDs, and Group General Manager of NAPIMS—as evidence of his readiness to lead.
But I must pose a single philosophical question to the Professor: Are these documented allegations not a true reflection of the system Mr. Wunti represents? If these are the “outcomes” of his career in the oil sector, how can we expect a departure from this pattern in the governance of Bauchi State? Let me ask for a favour, please. Can the professor run a poll with a single question: “Should Bauchi or any state be run like NNPC, or specifically NAPIMS, or any department that Wunti was part of?” Or, if Bauchi State (or any state) was run like NNPC, would it be viable?
Professor, what the current political moment demands is not the art of persuasive rhetoric, but the cold precision of empirical data and the weight of genuine accountability. Before any claim of "competence" can be evaluated, we must first confront the moral vacuum left by the economic sabotage, missing billions, grand corruption and other serious national security risk allegations. To ignore the financial hemorrhaging while praising the ‘technocrat’ who sat at the helm is a philosophical contradiction that we cannot afford to overlook.
The integrity of those who served as the vanguard of the NNPC, and by extension, the NUPRC and NMDPRA, must be subjected to rigorous public interrogation. In my view, the top officers of such "leprous" institutions should, by moral standards, disqualify any individual from seeking public office.
If we were to apply the tenets of Japanese Bushido or the ethics of Shame Culture, an official under whose watch such systemic failure occurred would not seek higher office; they would seek atonement. In those traditions, leadership is a burden of honor where the failure of the collective is felt as a profound personal disgrace, often leading to a total withdrawal from public life.
However, we are in Nigeria, where the political space lacks this sense of moral consequence. Bauchi State, in particular, has been profoundly abused by a legacy of Grand Corruption. The state has already endured the bruising tenures of figures like Isa Yuguda and Bala Mohammed, men whose tenures left the coffers of the state in tatters. They have their files too.
To propose Bala Wunti as the successor to this lineage is not a "new direction"; it is a surrender to certain disaster. It is the final ceding of the state's future to the very forces that have historically plundered it. If my dear Professor is skeptical, ignore philosophy and logic, just consult the dockets of the EFCC.
Mohammed Umar Waziri PhD
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