BOMA DIEPRIYE
ABUJA, Nigeria — Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of allegedly assembling a massive political war chest ahead of the 2027 general elections through unrecorded public expenditures and deductions from state allocations.
In a statement released on Saturday, Atiku alleged that ₦8.8 trillion in off-budget spending, alongside an alleged ₦800 billion deducted from state governments’ statutory allocations, suggested preparations for the next election cycle.
“The Tinubu administration is not reforming Nigeria’s economy. It is financing its own political survival with money that belongs to the Nigerian people,” Atiku alleged.
The ADC presidential candidate argued that when governments maintain what he described as a “secret treasury” during an election cycle, concerns about transparency naturally arise.
He further alleged that the recently controversial budget provision for the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council reflected a broader pattern of fiscal concealment.
“The ghost agency and the shadow budget are not separate scandals. They are two expressions of the same governing philosophy,” he claimed.
Atiku also demanded that the Federal Government immediately refund the alleged ₦800 billion deducted from state allocations and account for how the funds were utilised.
He called on Nigerians, civil society organisations, lawmakers and development partners to insist on accountability.
“A government that spends in secret does not govern; it plunders,” he declared.
