Atiku challenges Tinubu on alleged N12.8trn discrepancy in government spending allocation

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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar

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By Omeiza Ajayi, Abuja

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Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu of using the 2026 federal budget to bury trillions of naira in unaccountable spending, pointing to a dramatic surge in the Service-Wide Vote SWV that he says the government must now explain.

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The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress ADC said the SWV, a discretionary budget line, jumped from N638 billion in 2025 to N12.8 trillion this year, a nearly 1,918 per cent rise that he called one of the starkest examples of fiscal opacity in the country’s democratic era.

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The figure is tied to just 10 ministries, departments and agencies’ MDAs, which together account for 84 per cent of the entire budget, according to a statement signed by his spokesman, Phrank Shaibu, on Monday.

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Atiku zeroed in on the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, where he said N2.19 trillion of the SWV is listed as personnel costs, dwarfing the N54.8 billion allocated for salaries at the Federal Ministry of Finance. “Who exactly are the workers earning ₦2.19 trillion? Where are they? What offices do they occupy? What agencies do they belong to?” he asked, describing the figures as budgetary absurdity rather than legitimate planning.

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The former Vice President argued that the sums hidden under the SWV now exceed the combined allocations for education, defence and agriculture, and he suggested a political motive behind the concealment.

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He said Nigerians would be justified in suspecting the money is being positioned to fund the ruling party’s campaign machinery and Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027 unless the administration accounts for it in full.

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He described the entire budget as emblematic of a wider credibility problem, arguing that a government asking citizens to endure hardship cannot simultaneously shield trillions of naira behind vague headings without forfeiting public trust.

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Atiku charged the National Assembly to launch a line-by-line probe of the Service-Wide Vote, especially the N2.19 trillion personnel allocation, and to compel full disclosure of who benefits from it and under what legal authority.

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“It is time to open the books, expose the truth and restore integrity to Nigeria’s budgeting process,” he said.

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