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By Our Correspondent, The Searchlight / August 23, 2026

In what is fast becoming the most embarrassing governance scandal of the Bola Tinubu presidency, the federal government is now grappling with not one, not two, but at least four fake government agencies that operated with official office spaces, budget allocations running into billions of naira, and accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, all without any legal basis or presidential authorization.

The saga, which began with the exposure of the fictitious Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC), has now snowballed into a systemic indictment of an administration seemingly asleep at the wheel of governance.

The PFIPC Scandal: A Phantom With a Budget

At the heart of the first scandal is Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who allegedly styled himself as Director-General of the PFIPC, an agency that never existed in any law, executive order, or valid government instrument. Yet, somehow, Adeyemi secured office space at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, maintained accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria, and secured a whopping ₦1.3 billion allocation in the 2026 national budget.

The budget breakdown was staggering: ₦802,978,783 for personnel costs, ₦200,000,001 for overhead expenditure, and ₦300,000,000 for capital projects. All for an agency that existed only in the imagination of its promoter.

How did this happen? Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, in a blistering statement, posed the questions that should haunt every Nigerian: “How did Prince Adeyemi fool the Presidency, CBN, the Office of the SGF, National Assembly and the EFCC? How did this so-called agency that wasn’t a legal creation come to have a budgetary provision, office, staff and even security details?”

Atiku did not mince words. He described the scandal as exposing “profound administrative incompetence” in the Tinubu administration, an administration that allowed a phantom entity to infiltrate the very heart of the federal government.

Enter Nwabueze: A Second Phantom

If the PFIPC scandal was an isolated incident, one might dismiss it as the work of an exceptionally clever fraudster. But the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) soon uncovered more.

On August 21, 2026, President Tinubu ordered the immediate arrest of George Buchi Nwabueze and the suspension of three permanent secretaries, M.S. Danjuma, Nadungu Gagare, and Richard P. Pheelangwah, over the discovery of yet another fake agency.

This new phantom, operating under the name “National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office,” had been illegally allocated office space within the premises of the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), contrary to extant laws and without presidential authorization.

The ICPC chairman, Musa Aliyu, revealed that Nwabueze operated under at least five aliases: George Nathan, George Nathan Nwabueze, Honourable George Buchi Nwabueze, Prince George Buchi Nwabueze, and George Nwabueze. More troubling, he operated with “active suspected collaborators in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation”.

A Pattern of Systemic Failure

The PFIPC and the National Brands Development Office are not the only fake agencies uncovered. The ICPC’s interim report revealed two additional fictitious agencies created by Adeyemi: the FCT Investment Promotion Agency and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency and Public-Private Partnership.

That makes at least four fake agencies uncovered since early April 2026. And the government itself acknowledges that the problem may be even more widespread. The Federal Executive Council has now ordered a comprehensive forensic investigation into government processes and internal controls.

The Minister of Finance Taiwo Oyedele admitted that the investigation would extend to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) because “if you have fake agencies, you most likely have fake employees”.

The Chief of Staff Question: Adeyemi’s Accusation

Perhaps the most explosive element of this scandal is the allegation Adeyemi has levelled against President Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila. Adeyemi has alleged that Gbajabiamila demanded N400 million through a proxy to facilitate his appointment and requested an additional N200 million.

The Chief of Staff has denied the allegations, and police forensic analysis reportedly confirmed that Gbajabiamila’s signature on the disputed appointment letter was forged. The ICPC has also cleared Gbajabiamila of wrongdoing.

But human rights activist and presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has demanded that Gbajabiamila be investigated, alleging that Adeyemi’s arrest and reported dehumanization point to “an official cover-up rather than a genuine search for truth”. Sowore further alleged that “the individual alleged to have collected the ₦400 million bribe on Femi Gbajabiamila’s behalf has reportedly died under mysterious circumstances, while the hotel allegedly used for the exchange has since been demolished”.

The question remains: Adeyemi is in detention, but the Chief of Staff keeps his seat. Why?

The Verdict: Institutional Capture or Gross Incompetence?

The Tinubu administration faces a damning choice of explanations. Either:

1. The administration is so institutionally incompetent that a single individual could fool the Presidency, the CBN, the Budget Office, the National Assembly, the EFCC, and multiple government agencies into allocating ₦1.3 billion to a non-existent agency; or

2. There was active complicity at high levels of government, enabling these phantom entities to flourish with official trappings.

Neither explanation inspires confidence.

The provision of office space at the Federal Secretariat, budget codes from the Office of the Accountant-General, recruitment waivers from the Office of the Head of Civil Service, and accounts with the CBN, these did not happen by accident. They happened because the systems designed to prevent exactly this kind of fraud failed spectacularly.

Conclusion

The “face institutions” scandal is not merely an embarrassment for the Tinubu administration; it is a fundamental indictment of its governance architecture. When phantom agencies can secure billions in budget allocations, occupy prime office space in government buildings, and open accounts at the Central Bank, all while having no legal existence, then the problem is not with the fraudsters but with the system that enabled them.

The administration’s response, ordering forensic probes and suspending permanent secretaries, is welcome, but it is reactive. The question Nigerians are asking is simple: Who created the conditions for these “fake institutions” to thrive? And why does accountability seem to stop at the door of the Chief of Staff’s office?

Until those questions are answered, Nigerians have every reason to suspect that the problem of “fake institutions” is not a bug in the system; it is the system.

The Searchlight