The Federal Government of Nigeria and its officials led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as well as the Oyo State government and its relevant team led Governor Seyi Makinde deserve huge commendations from all Nigerians including this columnist for bringing to an end, the trauma of the abduction of pupils and teachers from their community in Oriire local government area of Oyo State since May 15, 2026. But for this huge achievement, the subject that would have remained the main matter of the moment across the country today, would have been the embarrassing story of a fake agency that almost scammed the entire nation. Considering that this column abhors cynicism, we are prepared to regard the agency as fake for now because the government of the day has so described it. We hope that the investigations into the dare-devil posture of the agency will throw enough light into its real nature and purpose. While waiting for the findings of the investigation team, we are uninspired by the unusual calm with which our habitually vibrant senate has so far taken the matter.
The said fake agency had taken certain steps that looked quite daring and uncommon. Known as the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, the agency was able to appoint a director-general and hundreds of staff. It also secured an office space at the federal secretariat and found its way into the nation’s budget having been assigned a Budget Code 0111062001. Yet, the senate wants Nigerians to regard the issue as a problem of the executive arm of government thereby simplistically passing the buck. We cannot allow the senate to do that except there are things it knows that the rest of us don’t know. Even at that, Nigerians deserve to be told what their senate knows about the national embarrassment. If it were other matters like requests for loans, which the senate normally passes before it gets the requests, one could describe it as routine but not so on matters of Electoral Act and Budget. In the case of budget in particular, history reminds us that our legislators have always claimed to be in charge of the nation’s budget. They can amend, edit and even rewrite the entire budget to confirm that it was approved by them.
