FG earmarks N14b for vague youth empowerment projects

In the spirit of accountability, a group, #FixPolitics Initiative, has called on the Federal Government to fully disclose what it knows about the scandalous Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), which the Presidency has declared a fictitious government agency.

In a statement, the Executive Director of #FixPolitics Africa, Anthony Ubani, urged the government to, among other things, establish and publish a single, authoritative digital register of all federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), as well as councils and presidential bodies to ensure accountability.

According to the information already in the public domain, the organisation operated from an office within the Federal Secretariat, received a federal budget code and self-accounting status, secured accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), recruited personnel, corresponded with government institutions and interacted with senior public officials.

Most troubling is that approximately N1.3 billion was allocated to it in the 2026 Appropriation Act, despite the absence of any law or valid executive instrument establishing the organisation.

The Presidency alleged that Mr Adeniyi Adeyemi forged official documents, impersonated a government appointee, and misled several public institutions, stating that the suspect denied these while making serious accusations against senior government officials.

According to #FixPolitics, these competing claims are now the subject of criminal proceedings and official investigations.

MEANWHILE, the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, has filed a N15 billion defamation suit against Adeniyi Adeyemi at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, over allegations that he demanded a 48 per cent kickback from a N27.3 billion take-off grant approved for a federal agency.

In the suit, Gbajabiamila is seeking N10 billion as general damages, N5 billion as aggravated damages, N200 million as the cost of the action, and an order compelling Adeyemi to publish a full retraction and apology in five national newspapers.

He is also asking the court to direct the defendant to post the apology for 30 days on all social media platforms and online channels where the alleged defamatory statements were published.

Gbajabiamila, through his legal team from Pinheiro LP, led by Kemi Pinheiro, alongside Folu Oguntade, Olukayode Enitan and Chukwudi Enebeli, described the allegations as false, malicious and defamatory.

In the statement of claim, Gbajabiamila denied ever meeting or communicating with the defendant or authorising anyone to act on his behalf.

According to the court processes, the defendant alleged at a press briefing that a disagreement arose after Gbajabiamila purportedly demanded a 48 per cent kickback from the agency’s N27.3 billion take-off grant.

He further claimed that N400 million had already been paid through a proxy on behalf of the Chief of Staff, while an additional N200 million was required to secure presidential approvals.

“The applicant has never met the respondent, never held any meeting with him and has never authorised any intermediary, representative, agent, or proxy to demand or receive money on his behalf,” the court filing stated.

The suit also referred to the defendant’s claims regarding the alleged mysterious death of an intermediary, Mr Babatunde Tanimola, whom he claimed served as the link between himself and the Chief of Staff.

The applicant alleged that Tanimola died in a suspicious hotel fire in Utako, Abuja, on October 22, 2025, a day after Gbajabiamila allegedly petitioned the police.

He further claimed that he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway in September 2025 and alleged that a “directive from above” instructed the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police Force to discontinue efforts to recover his stolen mobile phones, which he claimed contained crucial evidence.

IN the meantime, days after the controversy surrounding the PFIPC exposed how billions of naira in constituency projects were routed through agencies that had little to do with those projects, fresh findings have uncovered another vague, controversial budget allocation.

An analysis of the 2026 Appropriation Act shows that the Federal Ministry of Youth Development was allocated N14 billion for “Youth Empowerment Programmes Across the Nation” without project locations or details.

The allocation, one of the largest single intervention projects under the ministry’s capital expenditure, is contained alongside dozens of other projects broadly described as youth empowerment, policy implementation, stakeholder engagements and work experience programmes.

The ministry received a total allocation of N27.56 billion in the 2026 budget, comprising N3.23 billion for personnel costs, N7.45 billion for overhead expenditure and N16.87 billion for capital expenditure.

Of the capital allocation, N14 billion, representing about 83 per cent, is devoted to the single budget line, “Youth Empowerment Programmes Across the Nation.”

Budget transparency advocates have repeatedly warned that such vague project descriptions make it almost impossible for citizens to monitor implementation or determine whether public funds are spent for their intended purposes.

A senior research analyst with Budgit, Oludamilola Onemano, said the broad descriptions fall short of internationally recognised standards for budget transparency because they fail to provide sufficient information for citizens and oversight institutions to understand what the government intends to achieve with public funds.