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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has said that the controversy surrounding the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) is not just “another embarrassment for the government but the latest chapter in an ever-expanding book of scandals that have come to define the Tinubu administration.”
Atiku, who is also the African Democratic Congress ( ADC) 2027 presidential candidate, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Sunday, noted that under present administration, scandals occurs regularly, while the government announce investigations with funfare, only for the truth to allegedly disappear “into official silence.”
He recalled that “from unresolved questions surrounding the Humanitarian Affairs scandal; to allegations of crude oil theft and illegal tanker releases that faded without publicly released investigative reports; from concerns raised over alleged discrepancies in the 2024 budget and the absence of a comprehensive forensic explanation; to the billions reportedly expended on refinery rehabilitation while public refineries remain largely dysfunctional,” among others, it has been one scandal after another.
According to him, “When allegations involve ordinary citizens or politically expendable officials, the machinery of government appears to move with astonishing speed. But when questions drift dangerously close to the corridors of power or involve individuals perceived to enjoy political protection, investigations slow to a crawl, independent scrutiny gives way to internal administrative reviews, public updates disappear and accountability quietly evaporates.
“This selective application of justice is corrosive to public confidence because it creates the dangerous impression that there are two systems of accountability in Nigeria: one for the powerful and another for everyone else.
“A democracy is not measured by how quickly it moves past controversy. It is measured by how honestly it confronts it. Nations do not lose public trust overnight. They lose it gradually—each time difficult questions are postponed, each time reports remain unpublished, each time accountability appears incomplete and each time citizens are left to fill the silence with speculation.”
He lamented that while millions of Nigerians continue to endure the crushing hardship imposed by the government’s “so-called reforms,” those entrusted with managing the nation’s resources appear to be presiding over an allegedly unprecedented wave of corruption.
“Rather than translating the sacrifices demanded of citizens into improved governance, transparency and accountability, the country has witnessed a succession of scandals involving public funds, questionable contracts, budget irregularities and allegations of official misconduct. It is both cruel and indefensible that, while ordinary Nigerians are being asked to tighten their belts, the nation’s collective patrimony is allegedly being pillaged with alarming impunity,” he stated.
Furthermore , Atiku stated that PFIPC scandal presents the President with a unique opportunity to demonstrate that transparency is not merely an aspiration but a governing principle.
Consequently, he implored President Tinubu to seize the moment by ordering a truly independent investigation into the PFIPC controversy and publishing its findings in full.
According to him, “the Presidency now stands at a defining moment. It can permit a truly independent investigation that follows every lead, regardless of whose interests may be implicated. It can answer legitimate questions with facts and transparency. It can demonstrate that no individual is above scrutiny and no issue is too sensitive for public accountability.
“Anything less will only deepen the growing perception that official silence has become this government’s preferred instrument for managing scandals instead of resolving them.
“History teaches that governments are not destroyed by allegations; they are diminished by their refusal to confront them. And when every controversy ends in evasion, every question is met with silence, and every scandal fades without accountability, the verdict of the people eventually becomes unavoidable: The scandal is no longer around the government. The government itself becomes the scandal.’
“And to President Tinubu, Nigerians are increasingly asking a simple but profound question: if every road of controversy leads back to your doorstep, then who, indeed, is the scandal?”
