Why Tantita Won Big in Abuja

The Nigerian National Assembly did something unusual this week. It passed a vote of confidence on a private security company. And not just any company but Tantita Security Services, the pipeline surveillance firm led by former Niger Delta agitator, Government Ekpemupolo, better known as Tompolo.

According to lawmakers, Tantita is a “company of strategic national economic interest.” They dismissed all petitions seeking to break up or revoke its surveillance contract. And the numbers seem to back the decision.

Before Tantita deployed its hybrid security model, which combines local intelligence with coordination from the Nigerian Navy and Civil Defence Corps, crude oil production had slumped below 1.2 million barrels per day. Today, production has rebounded to over 1.7 million barrels per day, with thousands of illegal tapping points dismantled and environmental damage from crude spills slowed.

The country is earning more money from the oil it actually pumps, not the oil it loses to thieves in the night. Of course, this being the Niger Delta, nothing is simple. Rival groups had lobbied hard to split the contract, arguing that other corridors like Ondo and Ogun deserved their own separate surveillance arrangements. Lawmakers rejected those proposals, ruling that decentralising security would fragment intelligence and weaken national economic security. Instead, they pivoted to a different fight: pushing to double Host Community development funds from three per cent to six per cent of oil companies’ operating expenses under the Petroleum Industry Act.

There is still friction. Minor factions claim the parliamentary hearings sidelined critics. The Nigerian Navy and Tantita have occasionally traded accusations over jurisdictional overlaps. And some civil society groups remain uncomfortable with a private company wielding this much responsibility over national assets.

But for now, Tompolo has done something remarkable. He has convinced both the oil industry and federal lawmakers that a former militant is the best man to guard the pipelines. There is a joke in there somewhere about hiring the fox to watch the chickens. Except the chickens are producing 1.7 million barrels a day, and the fox is earning his keep.