Atiku Seeks Forensic Probe Of N210bn Budget Duplication

Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2027 election, Atiku Abubakar, has called for a forensic investigation into the alleged duplication of overN210 billion in the 2026 Appropriation Act, accusing the administration of President Bola Tinubu of fiscal recklessness and poor management of public resources.

The former vice president said the discovery of duplicated and overlapping allocations in the 2026 budget, alongside Nigeria’s poor performance on global prosperity indicators, showed that the country’s economic challenges were rooted in a failure of leadership rather than a lack of resources.

In a statement issued on Saturday by his senior special assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku argued that the Tinubu administration had failed to demonstrate the fiscal discipline it demanded from Nigerians.

He said citizens had endured severe economic hardship following the removal of fuel subsidy, exchange rate unification, higher taxes and other economic reforms on the assurance that the measures would restore stability and improve the economy.

According to him, the revelation of more than N210 billion in duplicated budget provisions has undermined the credibility of those reforms.

“When a government asks its people to sacrifice, it must first demonstrate discipline. Instead, what Nigerians have seen is a budget riddled with duplication, questionable insertions, overlapping projects and expenditures that offend both common sense and fiscal responsibility,” Atiku said.

He alleged that the latest revelation was part of a broader pattern of questionable budget practices, including allocations for projects outside the statutory mandates of government agencies and controversial insertions running into billions of naira.

The former Vice President also revisited the debate over fuel subsidy, claiming that Nigerians were misled into believing subsidy payments had ended.

Citing the audited 2024 financial statements of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Atiku alleged that the company recorded N7.13 trillion as “Energy Security Expenses,” which he described as another name for petrol subsidy or under-recovery.

He argued that while Nigerians bore the burden of higher fuel prices, inflation and increased transport costs in the name of reforms, subsidy payments allegedly continued under a different label.

“A government that conceals ₦7.13 trillion behind a convenient euphemism while demanding sacrifice from millions of struggling citizens cannot claim the moral authority to preach reform, prudence or fiscal discipline,” he stated.

Atiku said the integrity of the national budget was critical to economic planning and investor confidence, warning that duplicated allocations erode public trust in government.

He added that the effects of poor fiscal management were evident in the living conditions of Nigerians, with many families struggling to afford food and education, businesses battling rising production costs, and young graduates facing unemployment.

According to him, Nigeria’s declining prosperity rankings reflected the consequences of budgetary inefficiency and weak public finance management.

He further questioned the government’s continued borrowing despite periods of stronger oil prices, saying Nigerians deserved to know whether such borrowings were delivering value.

The ADC presidential candidate stressed that genuine reforms must be accompanied by transparency and accountability in the management of public funds.

He called on the National Assembly to immediately conduct a comprehensive forensic review of the 2026 Appropriation Act to identify all duplicated allocations, expose those responsible for inserting or approving them, and recover improperly appropriated funds.

Atiku also urged the Auditor-General of the Federation, anti-corruption agencies and civil society organisations to independently scrutinise the budget and make their findings available to Nigerians.

“The days when budget manipulation could be dismissed as mere clerical errors must come to an end. Every duplicated allocation represents a classroom not built, a hospital not equipped, a road left abandoned and a community denied development,” he said.

He assured Nigerians that an ADC administration would restore credibility to public finance through transparent budgeting, zero-based expenditure planning, digital public expenditure tracking, stronger legislative oversight and strict personal accountability for every public officer entrusted with taxpayers’ money..

Atiku maintained that Nigeria’s greatest challenge was not the absence of wealth but the lack of discipline in the management of the nation’s resources, insisting that a government that cannot protect the integrity of its budget cannot protect the future of its people.