There is a haunting irony in the scandal now swirling around the Presidency over the alleged allocation of public funds to a non-existing government agency. Before Bola Ahmed Tinubu became president, he was unsparing in his attacks on the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over corruption, waste, falsehood and what he repeatedly described as the abuse of public trust.
Now, the same words he once fired at the PDP have returned to confront his own Presidency.
The controversy over the disputed Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, PFIPC, is not an ordinary scandal. The Presidency says the agency does not exist. It says Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi allegedly forged documents, impersonated officials and falsely paraded himself as Director-General of the supposed body. Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, has also said the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, petitioned security agencies after allegedly discovering forged documents bearing his signature.
That explanation is important. But it is not enough.
The real question Nigerians are asking is simple: if the agency does not exist, how did it reportedly find its way into official budget documents? Who processed it? Who cleared it? Who presented it? Who defended it? Who failed to detect it before the budget was passed? A fake agency may begin with one alleged fraudster, but it cannot walk through the budget process without the failure, negligence or complicity of real officials.
