Atiku Unleashes Firestorm Over Tinubu's 'Unexplained' N12.8 Trillion Budget Vote
Atiku Abubakar has called on the National Assembly to investigate the 2026 federal budget's Service-Wide Vote, an opaque allocation that increased by nearly 2,000% to ₦12.8 trillion. He raised concerns over transparency and the potential misuse of funds for political purposes, demanding full disclosure from the government.
Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has issued a forceful appeal to the National Assembly, urging them to transcend partisan divides and immediately launch a comprehensive, line-by-line investigation into every allocation made under the Service-Wide Vote (SWV) in the federal budget, with particular scrutiny on the colossal ₦2.19 trillion designated for personnel provision. Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku insisted that parliament must secure full disclosure regarding the beneficiaries, the legal framework, and the precise spending plan for every single kobo appropriated under this contentious heading.
Atiku Abubakar described the 2026 federal budget as an unprecedented affront to transparency and fiscal accountability in Nigeria's democratic history. This stern assessment follows a series of shocking revelations concerning the extensive allocations hidden within the Service-Wide Vote. He highlighted the concerning discovery that a staggering 84 percent of the entire 2026 budget is concentrated within just ten Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Furthermore, an astonishing ₦12.8 trillion has been warehoused under the Service-Wide Vote within the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, a situation he believes reveals a deliberate design for opaque and unaccountable expenditure.
The former Vice President drew attention to the dramatic surge in the Service-Wide Vote, which stood at ₦638 billion in the 2025 budget. Inexplicably, this figure has skyrocketed to ₦12.8 trillion in the 2026 Appropriation Act, marking an astounding increase of approximately 1,918 percent in just one year. Atiku stressed that President Tinubu has a fundamental obligation to provide a detailed explanation for this monumental increase. He argued that no responsible government could reasonably expect its citizens to accept a nineteen-fold rise in a notoriously opaque budgetary provision without clearly stating who will manage these funds, their intended purpose, and the legal authority sanctioning such expenditure.
Atiku warned that if the Tinubu administration fails to offer clear explanations for the unprecedented ₦12.8 trillion Service-Wide Vote, Nigerians would be entirely justified in suspecting that these enormous sums are being clandestinely amassed to finance the All Progressives Congress (APC)'s political machinery and bolster President Tinubu’s re-election campaign in 2027. He asserted that a government with nothing to conceal would not obscure trillions of naira behind vague budgetary headings.
Further questioning the budget's integrity, Atiku queried the disparate personnel allocations. He pointed out that the Federal Ministry of Finance, which serves as the nation's primary treasury institution, has a personnel allocation of merely ₦54.8 billion. In stark contrast, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning is overseeing an eye-watering ₦2.19 trillion personnel provision under the Service-Wide Vote. He demanded answers regarding the identity, location, roles, and agencies of the workers earning this immense sum, labeling it