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ABUJA – The Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has called for the immediate sack or resignation of several top government officials over the controversy surrounding the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, an agency reportedly described by the Presidency as “fake” despite its inclusion in the 2026 Appropriation Act signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The umbrella body of registered political parties and political associations in Nigeria also declared that President Tinubu should resign if he fails to hold those responsible for the scandal accountable, insisting that the controversy represents one of the gravest governance failures and institutional embarrassments in recent Nigerian history.
In a strongly worded statement issued on Sunday and signed by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade James Ezema, the CNPP said the unfolding controversy had exposed serious weaknesses in Nigeria’s public institutions and raised troubling questions about the integrity of the country’s budgeting and governance systems.
The opposition coalition expressed concern over reports that one Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew allegedly operated the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council for months, purportedly occupying office space within the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, corresponding with government institutions, interfacing with diplomats and foreign nationals, and allegedly opening bank accounts, including one with the Central Bank of Nigeria, while presenting himself as the Director-General of the agency.
The controversy deepened following the emergence of documents indicating that the council, despite being described by the Presidency as non-existent, was captured in the 2026 federal budget with more than N1.3 billion earmarked for its operations, including personnel costs and the organisation of a proposed World Investment Summit.
According to the CNPP, the development is not merely an isolated incident involving one individual but an indictment of the country’s governance architecture.
The group argued that every item contained in the national budget passes through established constitutional and administrative procedures, including preparation by the executive arm, review by the Federal Executive Council, legislative scrutiny and eventual presidential assent.
The coalition maintained that the Federal Government cannot validly sign an Appropriation Act containing an agency and subsequently declare the same entity “fake” through a press statement.
“The government may decide to discontinue or scrap the agency, but it cannot lawfully invalidate an Act of Parliament by mere public declaration,” the statement said.
The CNPP warned that such actions undermine the sanctity of the country’s laws, ridicule the National Assembly and project Nigeria as a country where institutional processes have collapsed.
The group further lamented what it described as poor crisis management by the administration, insisting that a more responsible response would have been to announce the scrapping of the agency, launch an immediate investigation and transmit an Executive Bill to the National Assembly to amend the Appropriation Act accordingly.
It noted that the scandal had generated fresh concerns among foreign investors and international partners about the credibility of Nigeria’s institutions and the integrity of government finances.
According to the opposition coalition, the questions now being asked include how a supposedly non-existent agency made its way into a duly enacted budget, how it allegedly operated within government premises and how it passed through multiple layers of government scrutiny without detection.
The CNPP described the matter as a defining moment for the administration and called for comprehensive accountability measures.
Specifically, the organisation demanded the immediate sack or resignation of the Chief of Staff to the President, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria if it is established that an account was opened for the agency, relevant officials in the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Budget Office of the Federation, members of the Federal Executive Council involved in the budget approval process, ministers and heads of agencies that processed documents relating to the council, as well as principal officers and committee chairmen in the National Assembly who handled the budget.
The group also called for the immediate scrapping of the agency, the urgent amendment of the 2026 Appropriation Act to remove all allocations relating to it, the establishment of an independent judicial commission of inquiry, the publication of all records connected to the agency and the prosecution of all persons found culpable, irrespective of status or political office.
The CNPP further stated that President Tinubu, as Chairman of the Federal Executive Council and the President who signed the budget into law, bears ultimate responsibility for the controversy and cannot be insulated from accountability.
“The buck stops on the President’s table,” the statement said, adding that if those responsible are not sanctioned and a transparent accountability process is not initiated, the President should “take full responsibility for this unprecedented governance failure and tender his resignation.”
The Presidency has yet to issue a formal response to the latest demands by the CNPP as of press time.
The controversy surrounding the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council has continued to generate intense public debate, with legal experts and political observers divided over the constitutional implications of an agency reportedly included in a subsisting Appropriation Act being subsequently described as fictitious by government officials.
For many Nigerians, however, the issue has transcended the activities of an individual and has become a broader test of institutional accountability, transparency and the government’s commitment to upholding constitutional processes.
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