Thanks to scientific advancement in the form of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing, it is now possible to determine a child’s paternity with a 99.99 per cent certainty. In the light of recent events that have left our collective jaws on the floor, Nigerians are beginning to wish that a governance/public administration version of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test were possible to help them ascertain the paternity of an administrative child of yet indeterminate pedigree — the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).
Without the level of certainty that only science can guarantee, there may be a miscarriage of justice. An illegitimate child may be forced on a hapless ‘father’ while the biological father escapes responsibility. It has happened in real life before. It may be happening in our public administration space today. To connect the dots, let’s recall the famous legal battle (1943-1945) between world-renowned entertainer Charlie Chaplin and the 23-year-old aspiring actress Joan Barry.
Charlie Chaplin V. Joan Barry
When Barry became pregnant, she claimed Chaplin was the father. What followed was a media circus and a legal nightmare orchestrating multiple trials, FBI involvement, and a verdict that defied science. It was a case in which emotions pummelled science to stupor. Although paternity DNA tests didn’t exist yet, advanced forensic blood typing did.
Three independent medical experts tested the blood of Chaplin, Barry, and the baby. The baby had Type B blood, Barry had Type A, and Chaplin had Type O. According to science, two parents with Type A and Type O blood cannot biologically conceive a child with Type B blood. The science completely exonerated Chaplin.
Despite absolute scientific proof that Chaplin was not the father, Barry’s attorney gave an emotional, blistering closing argument. He swayed the jury into believing that the wealthy celebrity was trying to abandon a helpless mother and child. The jury found Chaplin to be the legal father, and he was ordered to pay child support until the child turned 21.
The public backlash over the verdict led to the rewriting of family law across the United States. In 1953, California passed legislation declaring that if scientific blood tests definitively exclude a man from paternity, the court must accept the scientific evidence. From that point onwards, it was established that in a contest between science and emotional appeal, science must always prevail.
King Albert II V. Delphine Boël
Many years later, one lucky lady, Delphine Boël, in faraway Belgium, was to benefit from that shift from emotion in favour of science when she sued her rumoured father, King Albert II of Belgium. The king enjoyed immunity from prosecution, so the case was suspended in limbo for years.
Delphine Boël was a Belgian artist. She wasn’t some homeless tart looking for fame. All she wanted was to establish her lineage. That is the least that any human being can ask for. We all deserve to have verifiable entries and exits. After King Albert II abdicated the throne, a court ordered him to submit a DNA sample or face massive daily fines. The king agreed to do the test. The result was positive! In 2020, Delphine Boël was legally granted the title of Princess of Belgium.
Adeyemi V. FGN
In the ongoing scandal of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) in Nigeria, we don’t have the luxury of a foolproof scientific method that could establish who truly fathered the disowned child.
The foster father, one Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, is accused of forging official documents and running a fake government agency from the Federal Secretariat, managing to get its name inserted in the national appropriation records. The fictional council officially appeared on pages 50 and 51 of the Appropriation Act, receiving a ₦1.3 billion financial allocation.
The presidency and the Office of the Chief of Staff dismissed the entity as entirely fictitious, claiming the so-called “Director-General” was a habitual impostor who fraudulently opened Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) accounts, employed 300 workers, and forged appointment letters. Opposition figures, civic organisations, and lawyers have demanded independent investigations to uncover how a non-existent agency successfully made it past multiple tiers of government approval and presidential signing.
In the absence of a social science equivalence of a DNA test, the only recourse is the courtroom, where the fireworks will resume shortly in this unprecedented quest of tracing the paternity of an illegitimate child. In the meantime, serfs and nobles alike are asking very troubling questions.
QUESTIONS
The 2026 Appropriation Act expressly lists the “Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council” (Code: 0111062001) with an approved allocation of ₦1.303 billion (including ₦802.98 million for personnel costs). If the agency does not exist and was disowned as early as late 2025, how did it successfully pass through the rigorous vetting of the Budget Office, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, and the National Assembly?
How did civil servants get legally deployed to a fake agency? Official records show that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (OAGF) formally deployed senior civil servants (accountants and auditors) to the PFIPC’s physical office. What does it say about the verification mechanisms of the civil service if formal postings can be triggered by forged correspondence?
The police report indicates that Adeyemi opened accounts with the CBN by misleading the accountant-general’s office. How can a private citizen navigate the highly secure protocols of the Central Bank and the TSA framework to open institutional bank accounts without top-tier state clearance? Who are his enablers and collaborators?
How do you run a fake federal agency inside the Federal Secretariat for months? The PFIPC did not operate out of a hidden backroom; it occupied a prominent space on the 2nd floor, Phase III of the Federal Secretariat Complex in Abuja. It hosted meetings with foreign diplomats, Nigerian citizens, and intelligence-linked bodies.
Adeyemi has publicly claimed that the dispute arose because he refused to yield a 48% cut of a ₦27.3 billion takeoff grant to the chief of staff, further claiming he had already paid ₦400 million by proxy. Is this one of his alleged many lies?
His camp has raised alarming allegations regarding multiple attempts on his life, alongside the mysterious death of an alleged intermediary, Babatunde Tanimola, in an Abuja hotel fire in October 2025. Will the ongoing judicial trial fully investigate these criminal undertones of the saga?
The PFIPC had already formally approached the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, requesting a note verbale to the United States Embassy to facilitate visas for its “staff”. If the whistle hadn’t been blown by the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), a parallel, unauthorised entity could have compromised Nigeria’s bilateral relations and diplomatic credibility.
Nigerians still place their hopes in the courts. The alternative is to embrace anarchy. The courts must, therefore, live up to expectations by using the best tools of jurisprudence to decide on the paternity of this fatherless child and assign responsibilities and culpabilities to him and his horde of conniving midwives, auxiliaries and nannies, even if that unmasking results in a tenured residency in a correctional facility.
So help them God!
Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached on [email protected], Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021
