Leave Buhari Out Of ‘Fake’ Agency Controversy – Media Office

The Buhari Media Office (BMO) has dismissed claims linking the late former President Muhammadu Buhari to the controversy surrounding the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) and the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC).

It insisted that the former administration had no connection with what it described as the current “comedy-drama” over a purported fictitious government agency.

In a statement yesterday, BMO said reports suggesting that Buhari created a fictitious agency and allegedly allocated N1.3 billion in the 2026 Appropriation were false and without factual basis.

According to the office, the Buhari administration established only the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), an ad-hoc advisory body made up of professional economists and financial experts to provide economic advice to the President.

The media office explained that when the council was inaugurated, it operated from the second floor of the Federal Ministry of Health offices designated for the chief economic adviser to the President, a position that was filled much later, at the Federal Secretariat.

It further clarified that the PEAC had no budget line throughout the Buhari administration, with its activities financed through presidential approvals granted to the minister of finance.

The statement noted that the council functioned as a part-time advisory body chaired by Professor Doyin Salami, who was later appointed chief economic adviser to the President.

Other members of the council, according to the BMO, included Professor Mahmuda Sagagi as vice chairman, Professors Ode Ojowu and Chukwuma Soludo, Dr. Shehu Yahaya, Dr. Iyabo Masha, Mr. Bismark Rewane, and Dr. Mohammed Adaya Salisu, who served as secretary in his capacity as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Development Policy.

The BMO stated that members of the council were not paid salaries, while office expenses were settled by the Permanent Secretary, State House, following presidential approval.

It added that after the current administration assumed office in 2023, it neither dissolved the Buhari-appointed PEAC nor reappointed its members.

According to the statement, the members regarded their appointments as having expired with the end of the administration that constituted the council because they were political appointees.

The office also said the Secretariat office branded as both the “Presidential Economic Advisory Council” and the “Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President” remained vacant after the end of the Buhari administration and was only occupied two to three years later.

The BMO maintained that attempts to trace the ongoing PFIPC/PEAC controversy to the Buhari administration were “false, groundless and lack any factual basis.”