N1.3 Billion for a Fake Agency? This Is Pure Budget Fraud

BudgIT has called on President Tinubu to investigate the N1.3 billion allocated to the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) in the 2026 budget, and the Presidency itself says this agency does not exist. Think about that for a moment. An agency that does not exist somehow secured office space in the Federal Secretariat, opened multiple accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, and was engaging with government institutions and diplomatic missions before anyone thought to ask questions.

This is not a simple oversight. The PFIPC, also known as the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, was nowhere in the 2023, 2024, or 2025 budgets. It appeared out of nowhere in the 2026 Appropriation Act. BudgIT's statement rightly asks: if the agency was fictitious, how did it get into the budget? Who approved it? Which officials signed off on the office space and the CBN accounts? This speaks to a deeper rot in our budgeting process — unexplained insertions, weak legislative oversight, and a complete lack of accountability.

We are talking about N1.3 billion of public money. In this economy, that is not a small amount. The question is simple: who is responsible for this, and what will be done to them? Or will this, like so many other scandals, just disappear into the archives of the National Assembly?