Nothing outside external intervention free from direct and indirect government influences, will assuage the feelings of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), in his current ordeal with the Federal Government

He wants President Bola Tinubu to constitute an independent, multi-stakeholder investigative panel to probe the controversy surrounding the council and the alleged N1.3 billion budget allocation.

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Adeyemi, who made the request through an open letter to the President is emphatic that the current efforts by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to investigate the PFIPC scandal, would yield little positive result.

Maintaining that he did not believe the agency would come up with the true picture of what transpired, in the saga, which has seized the national space in the last three weeks, Adeyemi, said impartiality under the current framework of ICPC was almost zero.

In the letter copied to both Nigerian and global institutions, he wrote: “I commend your recent directive tasking the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) with investigating the circumstances surrounding the PFIPC Scandal and ₦1.3 billion allocation inserted into the 2026 Appropriation Bill.

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“This directive is a vital first step, but the structural realities of this investigation compel me to speak out of a profound desire for absolute transparency.

“Under the current framework, obtaining a truly impartial hearing presents severe structural challenges. The public narrative emanating from official channels remains heavily weighted toward my immediate arrest, effectively overshadowing the gravity of the systemic vulnerabilities and high-level involvement I have brought to light. True accountability cannot be achieved when the agency conducting the investigation answers directly to the branch of government within which the core allegations lie.

“Furthermore, I must state clearly that walking freely into custody under the current arrangement poses an immediate, existential threat to my life. I have received verified, highly reliable intelligence indicating that I am targeted for elimination the moment I surface in an unmonitored environment.

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“This is not an unfounded fear. My concerns are deeply validated by the highly alarming events surrounding Mr. Dolapo Babatunde Tanimola, a central intermediary in this matter.
Official reports claim Mr. Tanimola tragically died in a sudden fire incident at Kachi Hotel in Utako, Abuja. Yet, there remains a total absence of independent eyewitness or media verification of any such inferno.
“More disturbingly, under highly unclear circumstances and without the official involvement of any federal capital regulatory agency, the entire Kachi Hotel structure was swiftly invaded by unidentified armed actors and manually demolished down to the rubble days later — effectively erasing a vital physical crime scene and erasing material evidence.

“Following this calculated destruction of a key locus of this investigation, alongside multiple direct attempts on my life and the safety of my family, I am forced to communicate from a secure, undisclosed location.

“If this investigation is to command the absolute trust of the Nigerian public and the international community, it must transcend standard bureaucratic boundaries. Therefore, I respectfully urge Your Excellency to expand the scope of this inquiry by establishing an independent, multi-stakeholder investigative panel.

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“To guarantee complete neutrality, this panel should comprise:

1. Civil Society Organisations: Specifically Amnesty International, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and other transparency Organisations.
2. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA): To guarantee strict adherence to constitutional due process.
3. Independent Media Representatives: Selected members from reputable print and broadcast institutions to ensure unfettered, transparent access to documentation.
4. International Financial Observers: Representatives from the World Bank and the IMF, given that the funds in question tie directly to multilateral credit frameworks.
5. Human Rights Observers: Amnesty International, to monitor compliance with international safety and legal standards.
6. Diplomatic Observers: Representatives from the United Nations, United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, ECOWAS and the African Union.
7. Statutory Enforcement: The ICPC and EFCC, serving as technical partners within this broader, independent coalition.

“The moment this independent, multi-stakeholder panel is constituted, I will immediately step forward to present comprehensive documentation and verifiable evidences. A system cannot credibly investigate itself when its own key actors are central to the discourse.
“By broadening this panel, you will demonstrate to the world that your administration’s commitment to anti-corruption is absolute, institutional, and above palace  politics. The international community is closely watching how Nigeria handles this test of fiscal integrity and governance.

“I remain fully prepared to present the facts and cooperate entirely with a balanced, secure and independent panel.”

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Atiku Abubakar seventh attempt at the presidency has been halted by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, which held that David Mark is not the fit and proper person to assume the position of the National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) – the camp that produced the former Vice President as candidate of the party.

Hours after the former VP, who had attempted the bid for the nation’s number one job and is on the seventh edition by virtue of his nomination for the 2027 presidential election by the Mark, agreed with the position of the Federal High Court, Abuja, restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognising or participating in any state congresses organised by the former Senate President.

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Justice Okon Abang, while reading the lead-judgement in the three-to-one split, said there was no reason for the appellate court to set aside the April 29 order by the lower court, adding that Justice Joyce Abdulmalik, who barred Mark and his executives from interfering with the tenure and functions of the party’s elected state executives, was in order.

Agreeing that the responsibility for conducting state congresses of political parties rested with elected state executive committees and not with the national leadership, he ordered INEC not to recognise the executive produced as a result of the defective process.

Though his position was echoed by Donatus Okorowo in the majority, Justice Abba Mohammed, who disagreed sharply, with a dissenting judgment, held that the case that precipitated the restraining order bordered on a non-justiciable internal affair of a political party, adding that lower court was wrong to have assumed jurisdiction to entertain the matter.

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By Ken Harries Esq

Some speeches disappear with the applause that greets them. Others acquire greater force with the passing of time. Their words do not change; history simply grows into them. Years later, they resonate with fresh power, not because they have been rewritten, but because the nation has finally arrived at the realities they foresaw.
One such speech was delivered in April 2012 at the 2nd South South Economic Summit in Asaba. There, Senator Godswill Akpabio, then Governor of Akwa Ibom State, presented what many regarded as an ambitious vision for maritime corridor and blue economy development.

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Speaking before political leaders, investors, and development stakeholders at the 2nd South South Economic Summit in Asaba, Akpabio outlined what many regarded as an ambitious vision for a model state in particular and regional development in general. Long before the Ibom Deep Seaport became a national priority, he argued that Nigeria needed new maritime gateways, integrated industrial clusters, aviation maintenance facilities, and modern logistics infrastructure to unlock economic growth. His vision was not simply about building a port; it was about creating an economic ecosystem capable of transforming a region and strengthening the nation’s competitiveness.

Fourteen years later, those remarks read less like political advocacy and more like an economic blueprint whose underlying logic has steadily been vindicated by events and times. Looking back today, his address appears almost prophetic—not because it predicted the future in mystical terms, but because Nigeria has gradually grown into the ideas it contained.

Truly visionary speeches never fade; they gather strength with time. This one deserves renewed attention, not because every prediction has materialised exactly as envisioned, but because it reveals a quality increasingly scarce in public leadership: the ability to think beyond electoral cycles.
Nigeria has never lacked projects. What it has often lacked are leaders willing to imagine the infrastructure of tomorrow while grappling with the demands of today. Akpabio’s vision was shaped by precisely that instinct.

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At a time when public discourse was largely focused on roads and recurrent expenditure, he spoke instead of logistics corridors, industrial ecosystems, aviation maintenance, manufacturing clusters, export processing zones, maritime and blue economy opportunities, and security reform—not as isolated initiatives, but as interconnected pillars of national competitiveness.

His vision for the then proposed Ibaka Deep Seaport, now known as the Ibom Deep Seaport, best illustrates this broader philosophy. Rather than presenting it as another state prestige project, he framed it as a strategic response to structural inefficiencies in Nigeria’s maritime sector and the wider economy. He argued that the Lagos ports were already burdened by severe congestion, with vessels waiting for extended periods to berth, driving up costs, disrupting supply chains, and delaying the delivery of critical imports, including pharmaceuticals.

His objective, however, was never to rival Lagos, but to complement it. The distinction is fundamental. No major trading nation concentrates all its strategic maritime infrastructure within a single corridor. Successful economies spread capacity, ease bottlenecks, and create multiple gateways through which commerce can flow efficiently. Nigeria has long recognised this principle in policy documents; Akpabio was among the few public leaders articulating it so clearly more than a decade ago.

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Equally significant was his emphasis on geography. He reminded his audience that Ibaka possessed a naturally deep coastline requiring little or no dredging, with water depths of approximately fifteen to seventeen metres. According to his account, the location had been identified as suitable for a deep seaport as far back as 1963, yet decades passed without meaningful progress. His observation that “being a minority area, there was nobody to push it” reflected a broader concern that strategic national investments have too often been influenced by political considerations rather than economic merit.

Whether one agrees entirely with that assessment is, in many respects, secondary. The larger point is that Akpabio consistently argued that national infrastructure should be driven by economic logic, strategic necessity, and long-term national interest rather than sentiment or political convenience. More than a decade later, that remains a lesson Nigeria is still striving to learn.

Yet, to see the 2012 Asaba address merely as a speech about a deep seaport is to miss its larger significance. The Ibom Deep Seaport was never presented as an end in itself. It was conceived as the anchor of a much broader economic ecosystem—a platform around which industries, manufacturing, aviation, logistics, free trade, and investment could flourish.

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Akpabio envisioned the acquisition of about 14,000 hectares of land to support a self-sustaining industrial city comprising fertiliser and ammonia plants, refining capacity, manufacturing facilities, and a Free Trade Zone. What development economists today describe as industrial clustering was already embedded in his thinking. The port was simply the gateway.

That broader vision deserves a discussion of its own. Today, Ibom Deep Seaport in that Asaba Speech has berthed.

•Ken Harries Esq is an Abuja-based Development Communication Strategist.

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