Abdulrasheed Bawa, the former Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has pulled back the curtain on years of fraud buried under fuel subsidy payments.
In his book, ‘The Shadow of Loot & Losses: Uncovering Nigeria’s Petroleum Subsidy Fraud’, Bawa lays out shocking revelations of how public funds vanished under the pretense of subsidizing fuel.
He details how billions of naira were siphoned through schemes involving ghost importing and over-invoicing where companies claimed payments for fuel that was never delivered or exaggerated volumes to pocket more money.
The book doesn’t just skim the surface. It digs deep into Nigeria’s multi-trillion-naira fuel subsidy scandal. It exposes how this financial loophole became one of the country’s most exploited cash cows.
Drawing from his time as a lead investigator on the EFCC’s special team that unraveled the 2012 subsidy fraud, Bawa paints a picture of well-organized deceit.
One trick the fraudsters used, according to him, was tampering with bills of lading.
By manipulating shipping records and exploiting global price swings, they claimed inflated subsidies.
The book also uncovers other dirty tactics: round-tripping, double claims, fuel diversion, and smuggling all backed by fake documents, weak monitoring, and tight-knit alliances between corrupt officials and private firms.
“Single shipments were often used to obtain multiple subsidy payments. Subsidised fuel was frequently diverted to black markets or smuggled out of Nigeria for profit,” Bawa writes.
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To him, The Shadow of Loot And Losses goes beyond documentation. It’s a wake-up call. It urges Nigeria to overhaul its public finance systems, especially in the oil sector.
Bawa’s revelations revisit a time of national unrest. In 2012, Nigerians led by the Occupy Nigeria movement took to the streets when the Goodluck Jonathan administration attempted to end fuel subsidy.
The Federal Government later disclosed it had paid over N259 billion in subsidy claims between 2011 and 2012.
Fast-forward to May 2023, President Bola Tinubu took the bold step and removed fuel subsidy at his inauguration.
By March 2025, while addressing the Planning Committee for the National Youth Conference at the State House in Abuja, Tinubu made his stance clear: “Every decision that I have taken is about you. It’s about the future. When we removed the fuel subsidy, it was because we wanted to protect your future. We have cleared the path for you to have a great future,” he said.
Bawa’s book now adds critical depth to the ongoing debate: Was subsidy removal simply an economic decision, or was it the beginning of real accountability?