Fela Durotoye, a former aide to President Bola Tinubu, has revealed that he turned down a fraudulent N5 billion federal government contract meant for the leadership training of youths across the 774 local government areas in Nigeria.
Speaking in Abuja during a colloquium organized by the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Durotoye shared details of the incident.
Durotoye, a renowned public speaker, recounted receiving a phone call from a government official regarding a contract for ethical leadership training in all LGAs. He was asked to submit an invoice detailing the cost of the training. After discussing with his team, they submitted a bid of N1.3 billion, excluding any management fees.
“Three days later, I got a call that ‘congratulations, Fela, you have been given the task,’” he said. “He said, but when we look at the costing, we said it is not possible that this costing could have been this and that most likely that you did not put anything for yourself. So, we decided to put something for you. For you, we want to put N700 million on top of this, so you will get N2 billion, but you will send us an invoice of N5 billion. We need that invoice in the next three days before they close the account for the year. I had to turn off my phone for three days because at some point he was calling me every 30 minutes.”
Durotoye stated that the following year, he saw a newspaper report revealing that four individuals in the presidency had been arrested for stealing N425 million meant for ethical leadership training.
He clarified that the contract issue did not occur under Tinubu’s administration or the immediate past one but happened several years ago.
Durotoye emphasized the importance of strong personal values as a guiding principle in leadership and decision-making.
In October 2023, Tinubu appointed Durotoye as Senior Special Assistant on National Values and Social Justice. However, he only served in the role for six months.