Ya’u, Muhammad Warn Of Fake States And Political Structures From Fictitious Agencies

The discovery of a second alleged fake government agency operating from within Nigeria’s federal government structure has raised fresh concerns about the country’s system of oversight and accountability.

The latest case is about the National Brands Development and Made-in-Nigeria Special Project Office, which the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission (ICPC) said is an unauthorized organization allegedly operating from a government building in Abuja.

ICPC Chairman, Dr Musa Adamu Aliyu, SAN, said the outfit was allegedly floated by one George Buchi Nwabueze who allegedly used different variations of his name. After a briefing by the ICPC, President Bola Tinubu ordered the arrest of Nwabueze and the suspension of three permanent secretaries in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF).

The latest finding was during the commission’s investigation into the disputed Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) allegedly promoted by Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew. The PFIPC was said to have operated from the Federal Secretariat for about two years before the Presidency disavowed it as a fake.

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The emergence of another alleged fake agency has now raised questions about how organizations with dubious government status are able to operate within or around official structures.

Governance expert and public commentator, Dr Joe Abah, said the problem could be worse than the two cases attracting attention presently.

“Another day, another fake agency. “There are all sorts of bodies that have offices in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Federal Secretariat,” Abah wrote on his official X handle.

Some of these organizations, he said, only need “a government-sounding name, a government-looking logo and an SGF address” to raise funds.

Abah said he once had an experience in government where an organization kept inviting him and his staff on free foreign trips, pretending it was a mentorship program. He grew suspicious when its promoter could not clearly explain who founded the organization or how it was funded.

“Interestingly, my civil servants, who’d always be keen on a foreign trip, never tried to persuade me. They probably already knew what I could only sense, being new at the time – that it was advanced 419. Someone must fix the Office of the SGF,” Abah added.

The Vice-President of the Nigerian Political Science Association, Professor Murtala Muhammad, in an exclusive interview, said the matter should not be seen as a case of people allegedly creating fake organizations. It is a governance and institutional failure, not just a case of individual criminality,” he said.

“Where rules, verification mechanisms, enforcement and oversight are weak, private actors can appropriate the authority and legitimacy of the state,” he said.

Muhammad said that the PFIPC case was a warning about the weakness of bureaucratic verification.

“The alleged creation of offices, fabrication of appointment documents and efforts to present the organization as a legitimate government institution points to serious weaknesses in bureaucratic verification and institutional accountability,” he said.

He said the problem was also connected to “entrenched poor governance, corruption, weak inter-agency coordination and inadequate accountability within the public service.”

“The revelation that the PFIPC attempted to obtain a budgetary allocation of ₦1.3 billion is particularly troubling as it implies that institutional weaknesses may extend to the fiscal structure of government,” Muhammad added.

The political analyst also said the reaction needed to be more than just arresting people, calling for better vetting of government agencies and appointments, improved information sharing and stronger budgetary controls.

“Fake agencies, therefore, do not emerge in a governance vacuum; they thrive where corruption, administrative weakness and inadequate accountability create the institutional space for their operation,” he said.

He also warned that the controversy could have political consequences for the Tinubu administration before the 2027 elections.

“If Nigerians feel that a non-existent agency could purportedly set up offices, develop networks across the country and infiltrate government processes without being detected in time, opposition parties will certainly seize on the incident as proof of administrative ineptitude, corruption or institutional capture,” he said.

If the government responds with transparency, evidence-based accountability and institutional reforms, the damage can still be contained, he said.

Y. Z. Ya’u, Executive Director of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD), similarly described the development as a reflection of deeper problems within the system.

“Why are Nigerians surprised that there are fake agencies in the federal government. “It is the height of naivety to expect anything other than this,” Ya’u said.

“We have fake state with fake Governor and State Assembly getting allocation from the federation account soon, if we are not careful,” he warned.

Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has also called for a broader investigation, especially in light of reports that the latest group had coordinators in about 20 states and representatives in China and the United States.

Who picked these coordinators? Who made those appointments? Who from the organization was there and who did they speak to?” Dalung queried.

Meanwhile, the promoter of the agency in question, Nwabueze has dismissed the description of the Made-in-Nigeria project as a phantom or unauthorized government agency.

His management said the project was an approved public private initiative anchored on Executive Orders 003 of 2017 and 005 of 2018.

The statement stressed that “the Made in Nigeria Project has never functioned as nor claimed to be a statutory civil service agency.”