Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi And The Making Of The Man Of The Year -By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

The topic on every Nigerian lips now is the Femi Gbajabiamila versus Prince Adeyemi saga. The story is like a movie script but it is not. The man at the center of the Gbajabiamila Gate scandal is Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthews. And both the local and the international media are looking for him for interview, making him the most sought-after personality in Nigeria at present. Whichever way you look at the story whether the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) is fake or real, Femi Gbajabiamila has made Prince Adeyemi, the DG of the PFIPC a hero by default.

First, I have to commend Prince Adeyemi for his courage to speak up and present his own side of the story. He was not intimidated by the status of Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to the President neither is he afraid to appear before the court to present his case. Many in his position would have long gone into hiding or fled the country. There are many stories making the rounds about how Gbajabiamila is using his position to dupe people with promises of appointment or reappointment that never happened and the victims never dared to speak up. But Prince Adeyemi admitted that he gave the sum of N400 million to Gbajabiamila through his proxy that died in a questionable circumstance few days before his arrest by the police in October last year. And the bone of contention is how to share the N27.4 billion approved take-off grant for the disowned agency. It is alleged that the refusal of Prince Adeyemi to agree to give Gbajabiamila the 48% of the said take-off grant that he requested is the cause of the rift between them. Clearly, the boldness and the zeal with which the said DG of the PFIPC operated indicates that he had the backing of someone or some people in Aso Rock prior to this time. And now the bubble is burst and Gbajabiamila the undisputable leader of the Aso Rock cabal is on the hot seat.

In fact, many Nigerians are inclined to believe the Adeyemi’s bribery story because of Gbajabiamila’s antecedent. The lies and propaganda from the state-sponsored agents cannot extricate Femi Gbajabiamila from this scandal. In 2007, Femi Gbajabiamila was convicted by a US court and barred from legal practice in Atlanta, Georgia for duping his client $25,000. And his tenure as Speaker of House of Representatives was dogged by bribery scandal.

On the other hand, if the said Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council is fake, then also Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi is also a hero and a genius for creating his own agency. He should be praised for exposing a failed government that thrives on propaganda and denials. He should be commended for showing Nigerians how weak our institutions and organs of government are. He should be rewarded for showing corrupt and hopeless our system is. He operated for nearly two years before it was discovered that the agency did not exist. Why did it take the government two years to know of the existence of the agency?

Indeed, the embattled the DG of the said fictitious agency must be a genius for operating deftly in government circles undetected for two years. He got appointment letter purportedly signed by Femi Gbajabiamila, got the Secretary to the government of the Federation (SGF) to allocate office to him on the second floor of the Phase 111 of the Federal Secretariat, got the Accountant General of the Federation to post officers to his office, opened account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), attended state functions and then had interactions with other government agencies including the almighty Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC). He had invitation from the Office of the SGF to join them in a trade mission to Canada. He had interactions with many foreign diplomats and with the Deputy Speaker of the House of Reps. The PFIPC had a take-off grant of N27.4 billion. Who approved it? The agency had the sum of N1.3 billion allocated to it in the 2026 federal budget. Who presented it and who defended the allocation at the FEC meeting and at the National Assembly budget defense session?

If the PFIPC is a fake agency, then all the heads of the MDAs that worked with it should be fired for incompetence and lack of due diligence. The Chief of Staff to the President should step aside for proper investigation. The SGF and the Head of Service should resign for allocating office to a non-existent agency. It means that they can also carelessly do so to terrorists. The head of the Budget Office, the Accountant General of the Federation and the CBN governor should resign for lack of due diligence; the same with the chairman of the EFCC. And members of the National Assembly Committee on Budget should be suspended for dereliction of duty.

There is no doubt that many Nigerians see Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew as a hero for showing Nigerians how weak and clueless the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is and how weak and porous our state institutions are and how unserious, careless and corrupt our public officers are. Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi is the man of the year!

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com

An actress, social activist, politician

London, UK