A prominent political economist has described the existence and operations of the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) as a symptom of a deeply fractured Nigerian governance system.
Adelaja Odukoya, a Professor of Comparative Political Economy and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), characterised the development as an “Order of Organised Inversion”—a dangerous political condition where informal networks increasingly overshadow formal, constitutionally recognised institutions.
Speaking on Monday in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Tribune, Professor Odukoya argued that the PFIPC controversy exposes a “government that does not govern,” where personalised rule takes precedence over institutional capacity.
To understand the crisis surrounding the purported council, the scholar urged analysts to look beyond mere legality and examine the core character of the Nigerian nation through the lens of Ernst Fraenkel’s “Dual State” theory. This framework divides a state into two parallel realities: the normative state (legality) and the prerogative state (arbitrariness).
“From this perspective, the concern with legality ignores the other side of the coin,” Odukoya explained. “The substantive concern should be what this situation throws up about the hidden nature and character of the Nigerian state.”
The former Lagos Zone Coordinator of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), noted that while formal institutions exist on paper, critical political and administrative decisions are routinely funnelled through extra-bureaucratic, discretionary centres of power. This duality, he warned, actively erodes democratic accountability and destroys public confidence.
According to the scholar, the proliferation of bodies like the PFIPC marks a worrying shift toward the informalisation of political authority. He accused the current structure of simultaneously institutionalising administrative discretion while marketising social protection.
“This tendency weakens citizenship because it substitutes constitutional institutions and social rights with administrative discretion and individual coping mechanisms,” Odukoya stated.
The Dean did not hold back on the economic and moral implications of this governance style, describing it as a core contradiction of Nigeria’s contemporary political economy.
“This is the institutionalisation of an increasingly irresponsible state,” Odukoya declared, adding a damning final indictment: “where officials don’t just steal, but stealing is official.”
To rescue the country from this structural decay, the political economist stressed that the government must halt the practice of multiplying parallel bodies. Instead, he called on Nigerians to demand absolute institutional transparency, strict constitutional fidelity, robust parliamentary oversight, and the deliberate strengthening of existing formal institutions.