The inclusion of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, an agency the presidency claimed did not exist, in the 2026 Appropriation Act, has questioned the integrity of Nigeria’s annual budgets and has also shown that the level of corruption in the country has gone beyond the era of ghost workers syndrome to an era of “ghost” government agency, Ejiofor Alike reports
Nigerians recently witnessed another drama, which further portrayed the country as unserious, with the discovery of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), a non-existent federal government agency in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
The supposedly non-existent agency had operated from a physical office space at the Federal Secretariat, and maintained a Treasury Single Account (TSA) with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Presidency itself confirmed that the agency operated 34 bank accounts, with nine opened in the names of the fictitious agencies, known as the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and the Public Private Partnership (FIPA-APP), and the FCT Investment Promotion Act.
The Presidency claimed that the director general of the agency, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, forged his appointment letter and all the documents he used to create and run the agency.
However, many Nigerians found it difficult to believe that a non-existent agency could enjoy such recognition without the collusion of top political actors and bureaucrats at the highest level of government.
The bubble burst for the agency and its promoters when President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff (CoS), Mr. Femi Gbajabiamiala, disowned the organisation and warned the “unsuspecting public” to note that such an agency “does not exist under this administration and no appointment has been made in that regard.”
But in a swift reaction, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew faulted Gbajabiamila for denying the existence of the PFIPC and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), and called for an independent investigation into the activities of the two agencies.
Addressing a press conference, Adeniyi argued that if the PFIPC did not exist, as stated in the disclaimer, the government should explain how references to the agencies allegedly appeared on pages 50 and 51 of the 2026 Appropriation Act.
He further alleged that the dispute between himself and the Chief of Staff stemmed from their interactions regarding the agencies’ proposed take-off grant.
While claiming that he had survived assassination attempts and also called for an investigation into the death of one Babatunde Tanimola, whom he described as an intermediary between himself and the Chief of Staff.
To back his claims, Adeyemi pointed out that the “non-existent” council was explicitly captured on pages 50 and 51 of the 2026 budget with a total allocation of N1,302,978,784, with recurrent expenditure standing at N1,002,978,784 and capital expenditure at N300,000,000.
Other items in the budget include salaries, N573,260,187; allowances and social contributions, N229,718,596; Logistics for World Investment Summit 2026, N182,500,000; and Strategic Investment Negotiations, N11,000,000.
Adeyemi also made an unsubstantiated claim that his relationship with Gbajabiamila soured after he refused to part with a 48% kickback from an alleged N27.3 billion take-off grant meant for the agency.
His revelations prompted the former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, to call for Gbajabiamila’s immediate suspension by President Bola Tinubu over the allegations.
But the Presidency, in a statement issued last Wednesday by the Presidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, defended Gbajabiamila and accused Adeyemi of peddling lies.
According to the statement, Gbajabiamila, had on October 17, in a letter, asked the Department of State Services (DSS) and the police to probe the activities of “fraudsters and imposters” forging appointment letters purportedly from his office.
Onanuga revealed that the police arrested Adeyemi in Abuja on October 27, 2025, and recovered forged documents during searches of his office and residence.
Onanuga stated that the police had on November 27, 2025, filed an eight-count criminal charge against Adeyemi and two accomplices at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Onanuga said Adeyemi is expected to appear in court on July 27, 2026.
The presidential spokesperson had also added that Adeyemi told the police that one Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola assisted him in procuring the fake appointment letter.
“Following his claim, the police went after the said Tanimola. The police found that Tanimola died in a fire incident at Kachi Hotel in Abuja on 22 October, five days before Adeyemi’s arrest,” Onanuga said.
However, in contrast to claims that the council was a ghost entity, records showed that Adeyemi had actively operated as the director general, holding high-level institutional engagements with various government stakeholders.
For instance, he had led a delegation to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) headquarters to collaborate on balancing anti-corruption fights with attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), where he was officially received by EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede.
Adeyemi also met with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to brief them on the upcoming World Investment Summit.
He had also hosted a delegation from the China Investment Business Development Commission (CIBDC) to discuss establishing the co-owned Nigeria-China Investment Group.
The Cable also reported that the federal government granted a waiver to the controversial agency to recruit 300 members of staff in August 2025.
According to the report, the Director, Organisation Design and Development, in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mimi Abu, conveyed the government’s approval for recruitment in a letter dated August 7, 2025
The two-page letter conveying the waiver was copied to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), yet the Presidency described the agency as non-existent.
Meanwhile, Atiku has declared that the Presidency’s attempt to explain away the scandal had exposed a government held hostage by fraudsters operating from within the very institutions established to protect the Nigerian state.
In a fresh statement issued last Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president said Onanuga’s response was not a defence of the government but a public confession of institutional collapse.
Atiku argued that the official explanation wanted Nigerians to believe that one private citizen single-handedly forged presidential documents, impersonated senior government officials, established an office inside the Federal Secretariat, opened dozens of bank accounts bearing government identities, hosted foreign ambassadors without diplomatic clearance and embedded a phantom agency into the machinery of government without any insider assistance.
“If the agency was fictitious, who prepared the budget estimates bearing its name? Which ministry submitted them? Which officials defended those estimates before the National Assembly? Which committees scrutinised them? Which lawmakers approved them? Who inserted the allocation into the Appropriation Bill? And ultimately, who signed that budget into law?” he asked.
“A government that cannot protect the integrity of its own budget cannot be trusted with the destiny of over 200 million Nigerians,” he added.
This scandal has exposed the frauds in Nigeria’s annual budgets.
It has also shown that the level of corruption in Nigeria’s public offices has gone beyond the era of padding the government’s payroll with ghost workers to the era of padding budgets with “ghost” government agencies.