Buhari Not Connected to Alleged PFIPC, PEAC Controversy, BMO Declares Position

Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Sunday Ehigiator in Lagos

The Buhari Media Office (BMO), has denied reports linking former President Muhammadu Buhari to the controversy surrounding the alleged ‘Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC)’ or claims that the ‘Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC)’ received a ₦1.3 billion allocation in the 2026 Appropriation.

In a statement, yesterday, the BMO declared: “These claims are false.”

The media office said President Buhari did not create any fictitious agency known as the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council.

“What he created was the Presidential Economic Advisory Council (PEAC),” the statement said, adding that the council initially operated from offices designated for the Chief Economic Adviser to the president at the federal secretariat.

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

The BMO described the PEAC as “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, before he was later appointed Chief Economic Adviser.

Other members of the council, it said, 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 in his capacity as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Development Policy.

The statement further noted that members of the council “were not paid salaries but office expenses were paid by the Permanent Secretary, State House upon approval by the President.”
On the transition to the current administration, the BMO said, “When the current administration assumed office in 2023, it neither dissolved the Buhari-appointed PEAC nor reappointed its members.”

It added that the members, “Being political appointees, considered that their term had ended following the departure from office of the administration that appointed them.”

According to the statement, the office branded as both the “Presidential Economic Advisory Council” and the “Office of the Chief Economic Adviser to the President” remained vacant after the Buhari administration and “was only put to use two to three years later by others.

“News reports saying the ongoing comedy-drama on the alleged fictitious government agency is rooted in the Buhari administration are false, groundless, and lack any factual basis.”