PFIPC: Troubling pattern of scandals now too frequent, Atiku tells Tinubu

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Atiku Abubakar

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…Asks President to come clean on his age, educational, family background

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By Omeiza Ajayi

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Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Phrank Shaibu, has slammed the President Bola Tinubu administration for dragging Nigeria to a point where scandals are no longer viewed as isolated incidents but as recurring features of governance.

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In a statement on Sunday in Abuja, Shaibu said there is an old African saying that when a man’s roof leaks every rainy season, neighbours stop blaming the clouds and begin to question the strength of the house itself.

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He also challenged the president to make full disclosure of his age, educational and family background, issues he said have been subject of litigations for years.

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“Nigeria has sadly arrived at that point. The issue is no longer one scandal or another. The issue is the pattern. And when scandals become a pattern of governance, the inevitable conclusion is this: you are no longer managing scandals; you have become the scandal itself,” he said.

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According to Atiku’s spokesman, the controversy surrounding the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council PFIPC is not merely another embarrassment for the government but the latest chapter in an ever-expanding book of scandals that have come to define the Tinubu administration — a government in which controversy erupts with unsettling regularity, investigations are announced with fanfare, and the truth too often disappears into official silence.

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He noted that what should concern Nigerians is not merely the frequency of these scandals, but the disturbing pattern that follows them: allegations emerge, committees are hurriedly assembled, promises of accountability are made, headlines are generated, and then, gradually, silence descends.

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The statement recalled that the suspension of a former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs over allegations of financial impropriety was presented as evidence that the government would pursue accountability wherever it led.

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“Investigations were announced, recoveries publicised, and assurances given, yet Nigerians are still waiting for a comprehensive public account of what transpired, who was held responsible, and what institutional safeguards were erected to prevent a recurrence”, he said.

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He quoted Atiku as noting that persistent questions surrounding transparency and financial disclosures within the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited NNPCL have similarly remained unresolved despite repeated calls for greater openness and institutional accountability.

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According to Shaibu, the former Vice President said the PFIPC affair did not emerge in a vacuum but belongs to a troubling sequence of controversies that have cast long shadows over the present administration.

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“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; from procurement controversies involving major infrastructure projects to recurring concerns over opaque contract awards, missing procurement records and appointments of persons linked to unresolved allegations, Nigerians have watched a familiar and deeply troubling pattern unfold. The pattern itself has become the scandal,” he said.

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According to the statement, 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, investigations slow to a crawl.

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“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,” he said.

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He noted that the statement comes barely forty-eight hours after Atiku gave the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to provide a full account of the PFIPC affair.

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“The countdown has already begun. Nigerians expect answers, not evasions, before the expiration of that timeline. The Presidency still has five days left to tell Nigerians who created this phantom organisation, who authorised its activities, and who must be held responsible. Silence cannot become the official response to a scandal of this magnitude,” he said.

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He also urged the President to use the moment to address longstanding public controversies around his age, family background, and educational records, which he said have generated intense public debate and litigation over the years.

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“While the President has consistently maintained his position on these matters, their persistence in public discourse demonstrates a fundamental truth: unanswered questions rarely disappear; they merely endure.

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:”The scandal is no longer around the government. The government itself becomes the scandal. If every road of controversy leads back to your doorstep, then who, indeed, is the scandal?”, the stayement queried.

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