Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a fierce attack on President Bola Tinubu, accusing his administration of using the 2026 Federal Budget to conceal trillions of naira in unaccountable spending through an unprecedented surge in the Service-Wide Vote (SWV).
In a statement issued on Monday, July 20, 2026, by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) described the 2026 Appropriation Act as “the most brazen assault on transparency and fiscal responsibility” in Nigeria’s democratic history.
Furthermore, Atiku revealed that 84% of the total 2026 budget is concentrated in just 10 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), with the ₦12.8 trillion SWV warehoused primarily under the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
”President Tinubu owes Nigerians a detailed explanation. No responsible government can expect citizens to accept a nineteen-fold increase in a notoriously opaque budgetary provision without disclosing exactly who will spend the money, what it will be spent on, and under what legal authority.”
Atiku raised specific red flags regarding personnel costs within key government bodies. He pointed out that while the Federal Ministry of Finance, the nation’s primary treasury institution received ₦54.8 billion for personnel costs, the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning listed an extraordinary ₦2.19 trillion in personnel allocations under the SWV.
“Who exactly are the workers earning ₦2.19 trillion? Where are they? What offices do they occupy?” Atiku questioned, calling the figure a “budgetary absurdity.”
He noted that the funds buried within the SWV now exceed the combined national allocations for education, defense, and agriculture.
The former Vice President suggested a partisan motive behind the surge, warning that without full public accounting, citizens would be justified in suspecting the funds are intended for political maneuvering ahead of the next general election.
”Should the Tinubu administration fail to come clean on this unprecedented ₦12.8 trillion Service-Wide Vote, Nigerians would be justified in suspecting that these enormous sums are being stashed away to bankroll the ruling party’s political machinery and President Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027,” the statement read.
Atiku called on the National Assembly, anti-corruption agencies, and civil society organizations to launch a line-by-line forensic investigation into the 2026 budget. He argued that a government demanding economic sacrifice and belt-tightening from its citizens cannot simultaneously shield trillions of naira behind non-transparent budget headings without forfeiting moral authority.
