APPROPRIATION WAS ONLY THE FIRST STEP
The public argument has often begun at the wrong point. The National Assembly appropriated funds for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, known as PEAC/PFIPC. That fact is not in dispute. The question is what happened next.
Nothing did.
An appropriation is authority in law to make provision for an expenditure. It is not a cheque. It is not a warrant. It is not cash released from the Treasury. Before money can move, other conditions must be met. Different institutions must act. Each must complete its own part. If one condition fails, the chain stops.
That is what happened here.
The public finance system does not allow one office to create an agency, approve its staff, place them on payroll, release money, procure assets and spend the appropriation. Those powers are divided.
The Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation deals with establishment and recruitment approvals.
The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission regulates remuneration.
The Budget Office assesses fiscal implications and issues Financial Clearance when the conditions are met.
The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation control warrants, releases, cash backing and payment.
The procurement authorities govern capital expenditure.
The strength of the system lies in this division of labour. No single approval is enough. No single office can carry an appropriation from the statute book into a bank account.
In the case of PEAC/PFIPC, the chain never opened.
THE COUNCIL ENTERED THE BUDGET THROUGH OFFICIAL INSTRUMENTS
Its institutional origins lay in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on 9 October 2019.
The Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation had assigned the administrative budget code that gave the Council its identity within the Federal Government’s budget architecture. Without that code, a spending body cannot be recognised for budgeting, appropriated as a spending unit, or subsequently participate in the expenditure process.
An authorised establishment and a recruitment waiver had also been issued by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. The relevant public-service salary structure existed. These instruments predated and stood apart from the Council’s later request for budgetary provision.
The Budget Office did not create the Council. It did not assign the code. It did not approve the establishment. It did not grant the recruitment waiver. It acted on documents issued through recognised Government channels and performed the task for which it is responsible: it measured the fiscal consequence of those approvals.
The Council asked for ₦3,850,935,000.00 as personnel cost. That figure did not form the basis of the Budget Office’s recommendation. The Budget Office disregarded the unsupported estimate and made its own calculation. It used only the authorised establishment, the approved recruitment waiver, the applicable public-service salary structure and the established personnel-cost methodology.
The calculation produced ₦802,978,783.00. That was the amount placed in the Executive Budget proposal and later appropriated. It was not a compromise with the Council. It was not a reduced version of the Council’s request. It was an independent fiscal determination.
FINANCIAL CLEARANCE NEVER ISSUED
Financial Clearance is the gate through which a personnel provision must pass before recruitment and salary expenditure can begin. It is not a courtesy letter. It is the formal confirmation that the fiscal and regulatory conditions for recruitment have been met.
Until Financial Clearance is issued, a personnel provision remains a figure in the budget. It cannot create employees. It cannot place anyone on payroll. It cannot produce a salary payment.
The Budget Office did not issue Financial Clearance for PEAC/PFIPC because the required conditions were incomplete.
The 2026 Appropriation Bill did not become law until Presidential Assent on 31 March 2026. Before assent, the Budget Office could cost the proposal and prepare the Executive Budget. It could not issue final Financial Clearance against a bill that had not become law.
After assent, another requirement remained outstanding. The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had not confirmed that the proposed staffing and remuneration arrangements complied with its prescribed template and the approved public-service compensation framework. The Budget Office could still estimate personnel cost from the instruments available to it. It could not lawfully open the gate to recruitment while that regulatory confirmation remained outstanding.
The result followed at once. There was no Financial Clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrolment. There was no salary payment.
THE PERSONNEL MONEY WAS NEVER AVAILABLE TO THE COUNCIL
