The embattled Director General of the “fake” Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, has explained the reasons he established the now-defunct agency.
Matthew, while speaking with social media critic, Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, in a video call on Wednesday, revealed that it was not unconnected to his passion for Nigeria’s outlook in the world, attracting foreign investors and promoting President Bola Tinubu’s administration, rather than for personal interest.
He also claimed that he was not aware of his agency’s budget insertion and defence in the national budget approved by the National Assembly and assented to by the President.
The embattled DG said, “I established that amount (rumoured N400 million) for the agency’s office out of passion for the country. I wanted to bring in foreign investors to Nigeria so that I can write my name in gold. I am just desperate to serve.
“That’s the reason I paid the money. I just want to do my part for the country. That agency was established to bring in foreign investments to Nigeria and make Nigeria a preferred destination for foreign investors.
“I walk around the inter-ministerial agencies and partner with the MDAs and EFCC to make Nigeria a preferred world destination for investments. So, it’s not about personal interest. Before this whole brouhaha, we were expecting the world to be in Nigeria through our forthcoming global summit.”
Dismissing the Presidency’s stance of being alien to the agency, Matthew said, “This whole thing is confusing especially when the Presidency said that the agency does not exist. How come? The agency that found its way into the national budget. I didn’t prepare any budget. In fact, I was in detention for 23 days when the budget for the Presidential Foreign Council was prepared and defended in the National Assembly between October and November. Punch
