A seismic political tremor has ripped through Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, following the stunning revelation of a fictitious federal entity allocated a staggering 1.3 billion naira (£700,000) in the 2026 national budget. This audacious fake agency scandal has ignited a firestorm, putting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration under intense scrutiny just months before a crucial general election in January.
The elaborate deception unravelled last October. Femi Gbajabiamila, the President’s Chief of Staff, dispatched a letter to police, alleging that his signature, along with official seals and reference numbers, had been shamelessly forged. The alleged culprit, Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, claimed a presidential appointment to head the so-called ‘Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council’ (PFIPC). This audacious impersonation facilitated illicit meetings with ambassadors, bypassing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and even misled the Accountant-General’s office into establishing accounts for the PFIPC with the central bank and numerous commercial institutions. The actual Nigerian Investment Promotion Council reportedly raised an alarm over the bewildering similarities.
Alarmingly, the PFIPC was not merely a phantom on paper; it secured actual office space within Abuja’s sprawling federal secretariat. This colossal complex, the nerve centre of Nigeria’s civil service, houses scores of government ministries and agencies. The ease with which Adeyemi gained such access has fuelled whispers of high-level collusion, prompting a deep, unsettling suspicion among critics. Adeyemi, along with two co-accused, now faces an eight-count charge in an Abuja court on July 27, including criminal forgery and impersonation.
Unravelling the Fake Agency Scandal
President Tinubu, facing mounting pressure, has ordered a full-scale probe. On Monday, he directed the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to initiate a thorough investigation. Intriguingly, days later, a Senate motion for an independent inquiry into the PFIPC mysteriously failed to pass. The House of Representatives, however, has formed its own committee to interrogate Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning. The presidency has sought to distance itself, pointing to Adeyemi’s prior history of misrepresentation, including an alleged stint as ‘president-general’ of a non-existent UN youth agency in 2017. He purportedly sought UN Security Council permission to appoint staff globally, only for the ‘World Youth Organisation’ to be exposed as a fabrication.
Yet, the fake agency scandal has inevitably dragged senior government figures into a harsh spotlight. Critics of the Tinubu administration are quick to highlight the contentious pasts of officials named in this deepening imbroglio. Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, for instance, received a three-year suspension from practising law in Georgia, USA, in 2007, for allegedly failing to disburse a client’s injury settlement. Though he later repaid the sum and admitted professional misconduct, he attributed the oversight to a paralegal. Even more dramatically, Minister Bagudu spent six months in a US federal prison in 2003, implicated as an accomplice to former dictator Sani Abacha, who notoriously embezzled billions from the Nigerian government. Bagudu reportedly agreed to return a substantial sum to secure his release without admitting wrongdoing.
This latest political earthquake, mere months before the presidential election, intensifies pressure on President Tinubu. It unequivocally thrusts the persistent spectre of corruption in Africa’s largest democracy back onto the national stage. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, a formidable challenger in the upcoming polls, has vociferously demanded an independent commission of inquiry. He advocates for a body comprising neutral parties: civil society leaders, opposition parties, and the Nigerian Bar Association, to ascertain whether Adeyemi acted in isolation. “Nigerians deserve the whole truth, not carefully scripted press statements,” Abubakar’s spokesperson asserted, demanding an independent investigation that leaves no stone unturned in this sprawling fake agency scandal.
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