FactCheck: Did Fela Durotoye Reject a ₦5 Billion Fraudulent Offer from Tinubu’s Government?
BY: Mustapha Lawal
Claim:
Fela Durotoye, a former presidential candidate, reportedly uncovered how he rejected a ₦5 billion fraudulent offer in President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Verdict:
Misleading. While Durotoye revealed rejecting a ₦5 billion offer in a viral video, he did not specify that the alleged incident occurred under the Tinubu administration. In fact, in the full video clip shared by The Nation Newspaper, Durotoye explicitly stated that the event happened “a while ago,” and not during the current or last administration.
Full Text
A viral online report claims that Fela Durotoye, a leadership expert and former presidential candidate, exposed how he turned down a fraudulent ₦5 billion offer from “President Tinubu’s government”. Reports of the claims are found here and here.
Fela Durotoye, speaking at the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria’s biannual conference in Abuja on Tuesday, February 11, shared an experience that tested his values and integrity. He recounted being approached by a high-ranking government official, who also identified as a pastor, with an offer to lead a nationwide leadership training program. The program was to be implemented in all 774 local government areas within eight weeks, and Durotoye was assured that he had already been selected for the contract.
After evaluating the project requirements, Durotoye and his team determined that the fair cost of execution would be N1.3 billion, Punch reported. However, just days later, he received a call that raised serious concerns. “I got a call congratulating me that I had secured the job. But they said the amount I was asking for was too small. They promised to add N700m to make it N2bn. Then they asked me to submit an invoice for N5bn,” he revealed.
Durotoye questioned the ethics of inflating the contract amount, especially for a program focused on ethical leadership, Vanguard reported. The official dismissed Durotoye’s concerns and justified the fraudulent arrangement.
Three months later, news broke that officials within the presidency had been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for misappropriating N426 million meant for an ethical leadership training fund.
The report has been widely shared on social media, with many assuming that the incident occurred recently under the current administration.
Verification
FactCheckAfrica reviewed the original video posted by The Nation Newspaper and found that Durotoye deliberately avoided mentioning which administration was involved. His clarification that the event did not happen in the current or previous administration directly refutes the claim that it occurred under Tinubu’s government.
The full version of the video, as posted by The Nation Newspaper on its official X (formerly Twitter) platform, contradicts this claim. In the video, Durotoye said:
“A few years ago, I’ll not say how long, but it’s not this administration, it’s not last administration it’s a while ago let me leave it like that.”
This statement makes it clear that the incident did not happen under Tinubu’s government
Further checks also revealed that the misleading claim originated from an online report that took Durotoye’s statement out of context, attributing it to the current administration without evidence.
Conclusion
The claim that Fela Durotoye rejected a ₦5 billion fraudulent offer under Tinubu’s administration is misleading. While Durotoye did reveal rejecting such an offer, he clearly stated that it did not occur during the current or previous administration. This misrepresentation highlights the dangers of misinformation, especially when political narratives are shaped without full context.
