Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, has delivered a scathing critique of the institutional failures that allowed a purported N1.3 billion allocation to the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) to be inserted into the 2026 Appropriation Act, insisting that it is "structurally impossible" for an unlegislated phantom agency to secure such funding without deep executive collusion or systematic administrative collapse. Lawal made the remarks on Monday, 6 July 2026, during an interview on Arise Television's 'Prime Time' programme, as the scandal surrounding the fictitious agency continued to grip the nation.
Lawal, who served as SGF under former President Muhammadu Buhari, dismantled the notion that a rogue entity could independently infiltrate the national budget, declaring that standard public finance protocols do not allow money to be appropriated to a non-existent entity. "Funds cannot be appropriated to an agency that has not been legislated. There has to be a legal basis for its existence, but first, it is the executive that raises such an agency and makes the proposal before further approvals by the Accountant-General of the Federation and the legislature," Lawal stated.
The former SGF questioned how a budget could be assigned to an agency that allegedly did not exist, arguing that multiple institutional checks and balances should have flagged any irregularities long before the budget was passed. "If the agency was created by just one person, how was a budget assigned to an agency that doesn't exist? Agencies defend budgets. If they didn't exist, how was the budget allowed to pass? There are different steps taken that would have flagged this before the budget was passed," Lawal said.
Lawal provided a detailed breakdown of how the federal bureaucracy handles monetary proposals, proving that the Presidency's current stance—posing as completely unaware victims—fails basic administrative tests. He explained that before the President ever signs a completed budget into law, the proposals must undergo technical drafting, clear the Budget Office, receive ratification from the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and be defended directly by supervising ministers. "All such agencies report to the Office of the Secretary to the Government. Appointment letters are signed by the Secretary to the Government," Lawal noted.
The former SGF also revealed that the responsibility to flag the fake agency rested squarely on the shoulders of the SGF's office, warning that unless there was a dereliction of duty, the SGF should have detected the irregularity. "I can tell you, unless there's a dereliction of duty by the SGF's office, the responsibility to flag this fake agency would have come from the SGF," Lawal said. He further argued that an SGF could only look the other way in such matters especially when his office is being sidelined by some highly placed people in the presidency.
Lawal's comments came amid revelations that the controversial N1.3 billion allocation was inserted into the 2026 Appropriation Act without representatives of the council appearing before the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service to defend its budget proposal. Insiders within the National Assembly have confirmed that the entry was sneaked in through a backdoor arrangement without Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, the purported Director-General of the PFIPC, or any real official ever presenting themselves before the committee.
The PFIPC scandal has exposed what Lawal described as a "multi-layer executive failure". The former SGF called for an urgent, independent probe to uncover every collaborator within the National Assembly, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, and the Central Bank. "There's an institutional compromise and a big racket going on," Lawal declared, warning that the allegations are too severe to be swept under the carpet with simple press denials.
As the scandal continues to unfold, with the Nigeria Police Force having detained the father of the central suspect and the Federal Government identifying the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, along with 10 other individuals as witnesses for the prosecution, Lawal's intervention has added significant weight to calls for a transparent investigation into how a fictitious agency secured a N1.3 billion budget allocation. His pointed question—"how was a budget assigned to an agency that doesn't exist?"—remains unanswered, and his warning that the scandal points to a "systematic administrative collapse" continues to reverberate across Nigeria's political and financial landscape.
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