The curious case of Gbaja and the Prince, by Rotimi Fasan

If presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga is to be believed, the so called director, Adeyemi Adeniyi Matthew, of a so called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council or PFIPC should appear in court in about three weeks from now. That is on July 27 to answer multiple charges of impersonation and forgery. The issue centres around one question: does the PFIPC exist or not? If it does, is it a creation of the law or a shape shifting phantom that exists only in the fecund imagination of the man who says he is the director of the council? The man, Adeyemi Adeniyi Matthew, also claims to be a prince, perhaps of a kingdom the world is yet to know about. Prince Adeyemi Adeniyi Matthew, to accord him full honours, is currently enmeshed in a battle of epic proportions with one man who has the entire structure of federal might behind him.

We are talking here of the president’s chief of staff and long time player in the corridors of power, Femi Gbajabiamila, or Gbaja in popular language. Mr. Gbajabiamila is also a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. He is the one with whom Prince Adeyemi (this seems to me to be his last name, in which case the “natural” order of his names should be Prince Matthew Adeniyi Adeyemi or Prince Matthew Adeyemi Adeniyi) has locked horns. While we await the court hearings, one thing that is emerging from the build up of Prince Adeyemi’s profile is that he is a confidence trickster who operates mainly as an influence peddler. But no matter the level of his confidence or the depth of his trickery, one doesn’t require a babalawo to tell one he didn’t act alone. He has his enablers at different points along the way, and many of them obviously reside in the highest echelon of power, not necessarily or exclusively in the presidency.

The president’s spokesperson has exonerated and promised Prince Adeyemi, who has wholeheartedly accepted the opportunity, his day in court. And if the presidency has so much faith in the court, why is it acting nervous? Or how else should Nigerians explain the arrest of Prince Adeyemi’s father last Monday? What is worrying here is the breach of the older Adeyemi’s freedom. His is a case of substituted arrest, an underarm tackle that was better associated with our military past. If there is one thing that the Tinubu administration has managed to steer clear of, it is the direct breach of the personal freedoms of Nigerians. The government has achieved this despite claims in certain quarters to the contrary. Arresting Pa Adeyemi undermines its claim of adherence to democratic practice. The administration has neither managed this incident well nor demonstrated transparency about it since it started in October 2025.

That was when Femi Gbajabiamila lodged a complaint of impersonation against Prince Adeyemi. It took all of one month for the police to act on that report, and Mr. Adeyemi was arrested. Nobody was to hear a word about the matter again until eight months later, precisely in June 2026. A lot that should not have happened had happened in the eight months it took both the presidency and the security agencies to do anything about the alleged criminal activities of Prince Adeyemi. First, his supposed non existent council received appropriation totalling N1.3 billion in the 2026 budget. This came, Prince Adeyemi says, after N27 billion had earlier been released as a take off grant for the council. It was disagreement over how this particular fund was to be shared that led to the revelations Nigerians have been treated to in the last week. According to Mr. Adeyemi, Mr. Gbajabiamila demanded a 48 per cent cut of the money. Adeyemi declined, and Mr. Gbajabiamila disowned Adeyemi’s council. It is easy to see that Prince Adeyemi is a social climber, faworaja who trades in influence and proximity to power. While it is possible that his entire story could be a fabrication, it also seems he must have had at least an indirect relationship with the chief of staff to the president. He mentioned a go between, Tanimola Babatunde, whom he claimed died in a mysterious fire in a hotel.

It seems there was nothing of significance Prince Adeyemi did as the director of his purported council for which he does not have evidence in multiple forms — audio, video, print, etc. It is as if he knew a day like this would come. The evidence is overwhelming and indicting of the Tinubu administration in every dimension. The man has organised events where he has been pictured with the most respected individuals and groups in the country and beyond, from heads of crime agencies like the EFCC, Kayode Oluyede, to military brass, business leaders, members of the diplomatic community, and former presidents. How did this happen without anybody knowing? This man’s camel simply passed through the eye of a needle, and nobody in the presidency, National Assembly, or the many MDAs with whom he frequently interacted was any wiser. Or so we are being told.

Something here is not smelling good. Who defended Prince Adeyemi’s budget before the national legislature? How did the council become a tenant at the Federal Secretariat? Yes, the man was close to powerful people, and this seems to have opened virtually every door he knocked on for him. While it beggars belief that all of this happened right before us, while reports of the prince’s antecedents point in the direction of criminality, it does appear he has been enabled by the likes of Mr. Gbajabiamila, who sat on their palms and watched as knowledge of Prince Adeyemi’s activities got to them. That rumours and allegations of Femi Gbajabiamila trading government positions and appointments for money have for long circulated in the national space does not help his case. 

Such reports are really not new. They existed during the Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari administrations — family members and close aides selling appointments. But this is the first time it comes close to being proven. Many have expectedly demanded that Gbajabiamila be sacked, the same thing they demanded of Godswill Akpabio during his sexual harassment case with Senator Natasha Akpoti. But till today Akpoti is yet to provide a shred of evidence for her allegations. Femi Gbajabiamila and the presidency received information about Prince Adeyemi’s activities since last year and did not feel sufficiently bothered to act on it and ensure its prosecution for nearly one year. A Yoruba proverb says when an individual squats too long on their stool, they are visited by strange flies. Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila squatted too long on his own stool and has been visited by strange flies. This is why he should stand down as the president’s chief of staff until he is cleared by the courts.

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