Buhari never created fictitious PFIPC — Media office

Buhari Media Office (BMO) has dismissed reports linking former President Muhammadu Buhari to the controversy surrounding the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), describing the claims as “false” and “without factual basis”.

The office, on Sunday, said Buhari never established any agency known as the PFIPC or allocated ₦1.3 billion to such an organisation in the 2026 Appropriation.

It stated that the only body created under the former administration was the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC), which served as an ad hoc advisory committee on economic matters.

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The BMO explained that the PEAC initially operated from offices designated for the Chief Economic Adviser to the President at the Federal Secretariat and functioned without a dedicated budget line throughout the Buhari administration.

It stated that the council’s activities were funded through presidential approvals to the Minister of Finance, while office expenses were paid by the State House upon the President’s approval.

“What he (Buhari) created was the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC). At inception, it operated from the second floor of the Ministry of Health offices designated for the Chief Economic Adviser to the President, a position he did not appoint until much later, at the Federal Secretariat.

Under the last administration, the PEAC had no budget line. Its activities were funded through presidential approvals to the Minister of Finance.

The PEAC was an ad-hoc (part-time) body, purely advisory, made up of professional economists and financial experts to offer expert economic advice to the President under the chairmanship of Professor Doyin Salami, CFR ⅕before he was eventually made the Chief Economic Adviser,” the office stressed.

Other members, according to the statement, included Professor Mahmuda Sagagi as Vice Chairman, Professor Ode Ojowu, Dr. Shehu Yahaya, Dr. Iyabo Masha, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, Mr. Bismarck Rewane and Dr. Mohammed Adaya Salisu, who served as secretary.

It added that members of the council received no salaries, with only operational expenses provided to support the council’s work.

The BMO further noted that when the current administration took office in 2023, it neither dissolved the Buhari-appointed PEAC nor reappointed its members, adding that the appointees considered their tenure to have ended with the expiration of the administration that constituted the council.

It also stated that the office jointly branded as the “Presidential Economic Advisory Council” and the “Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President” remained vacant after the change in administration and was only occupied several years later.

Rejecting attempts to associate the current controversy with the Buhari administration, the media office maintained that reports claiming the alleged fictitious agency originated under the former president were “false, groundless and lack any factual basis.”

It urged the public to disregard claims linking Buhari to the alleged PFIPC, insisting that the former administration established only the Presidential Economic Advisory Council as an advisory body without a statutory budget line.