Atiku raises concerns over N12.8trn Service-Wide Vote in 2026 budget
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Federal Government of allegedly concealing N12.8 trillion under the Service-Wide Vote in the 2026 Appropriation Act.
Atiku, who is also the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate for the 2027 general election, stated that while the Service-Wide Vote stood at ₦638 billion in the 2025 budget, it has “inexplicably ballooned to ₦12.8 trillion in the 2026 Appropriation Act—an astonishing increase of approximately 1,918 per cent in just one year.”
The former Vice President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Monday, said the 2026 national budget is allegedly the most brazen assault on transparency and fiscal responsibility in Nigeria’s democratic history.
According to him, it is shocking that 84 per cent of the 2026 budget is allegedly concentrated in 10 ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
Atiku noted that “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.
“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 APC’s political machinery and President Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027. A government with nothing to hide does not conceal trillions behind opaque budgetary headings.”
Furthermore, he queried “how the Federal Ministry of Finance, the nation’s principal treasury institution, has a personnel allocation of only ₦54.8 billion, while the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning is carrying an eye-watering ₦2.19 trillion personnel provision under the Service-Wide Vote.
“Who exactly are the workers earning ₦2.19 trillion? Where are they? What offices do they occupy? What agencies do they belong to? This is not budgeting; it is budgetary absurdity. Nigerians deserve to see the payroll.”
Atiku, who observed that the combined allocations to education, defence and agriculture fall below the allocation to the Service-Wide Vote, warned that “such unprecedented concentrations of unmarked funds inevitably raise serious questions about their intended use and demand the highest level of public scrutiny.
“The 2026 Appropriation Act is fast becoming a document that reeks of fiscal manipulation. At a time when Nigerians are being asked to endure hardship, the government cannot simultaneously hide trillions behind budgetary euphemisms and expect public trust. Every unexplained trillion is a trillion diverted from classrooms, hospitals, security, food production, and economic growth.”
The ADC candidate charged the National Assembly to immediately commence a comprehensive, line-by-line investigation into every allocation under the Service-Wide Vote, particularly the ₦2.19 trillion personnel provision.
“A government that cannot explain where trillions of naira are going has forfeited the moral authority to demand sacrifice from its citizens. It is time to open the books, expose the truth, and restore integrity to Nigeria’s budgeting process. The Nigerian people deserve nothing less,” he stated.
