If the allegations surrounding the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) are true, then Nigeria is confronting one of the most embarrassing governance scandals in recent years. It is a story that goes beyond one man allegedly forging appointment letters or creating a false government agency. It is an indictment of an entire public administration whose checks and balances appear to have collapsed under the weight of negligence, complicity, or both.
Even more disturbing is the complete silence that has followed the revelations.
According to BusinessDay’s investigation, an agency the Presidency now insists never legally existed somehow found its way into the national budget with a N1.3 billion allocation. It reportedly secured a Treasury Single Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria; obtained approval to recruit more than 300 staff; met ministers, diplomats, lawmakers and regulatory agencies; and conducted itself as an official arm of government for nearly two years. We cannot say that is a coincidence but a huge institutional failure.
The question Nigerians should be asking is no longer whether Adeyemi Adeniyi deceived government institutions but whether government institutions deliberately ignored obvious red signs or actively participated in legitimising what has now been described as a false organisation.
