Former presidential candidate and leadership coach, Fela Durotoye, has revealed how an official from the Presidency pressured him to inflate a contract from N1.3 billion to N5 billion. He made this known on Tuesday at the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria’s biannual conference in Abuja.
Durotoye explained that he was approached with a government contract to conduct leadership training across all 774 local government areas in Nigeria. The official, who identified himself as a pastor, assured him that he had already been selected for the job.
After evaluating the project, Durotoye and his team estimated that a fair cost for the training would be N1.3 billion. He submitted an invoice based on this calculation. However, just three days later, he received a call from the Presidency informing him that he had secured the contract but that the proposed amount was considered too low.
“They promised to add N700 million to make it N2 billion. Then they asked me to submit an invoice for N5 billion,” he said.
Durotoye questioned the logic behind inflating the contract, especially since the training focused on ethical leadership. However, the official dismissed his concerns.
“The man assured me he wasn’t ripping off Nigeria,” he recalled. According to Durotoye, the official justified the price increase by claiming he had served the country and deserved to be compensated.
Durotoye, uncomfortable with the situation, decided to end the conversation. “While the conversation was ongoing, I switched off my phone because the official was bent on inflating the price,” he said.
Three months later, he learned that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arrested some presidency officials for allegedly stealing N426 million from an ethical leadership training fund.
