If you could go back and witness any historical event, which one would you pick? As the Chinese say, may you live in interesting times, and we are. The Roman decline was not televised, the British empire decline was photographed, the decline of the America empire is currently on your timeline and screens.
There is something almost uniquely Nigerian about discovering that a government agency is fake after it has been given an office, treated as official, populated with officials, recognised by other parts of government and, in one case, even found its way into the national budget.
There are two Nigerias. Not the televised one where Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar trade statistics like boxing jabs, but the economic one—the one that determines who actually gets access to money, and who gets a “please come back with collateral” smile. The first Nigeria is the one banks have always loved. Salaried workers. Corporate …
here is an old, bitter administrative joke in Nigeria that you are only formally counted twice: never when you arrive, and certainly not when you leave. In between, your existence is largely an unverified rumor negotiated between your creator, your luck, and whatever age declaration affidavit you paid a court clerk two thousand Naira to stamp.
Tinubu also ordered the immediate suspension of three permanent secretaries allegedly linked to the operation of the fake agency and ordered the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to conduct an investigation into its formation and operation.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 