Abuja, Nigeria – Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has challenged President Bola Tinubu to provide a transparent public account of approximately ₦30 trillion in Federation revenues, deductions, savings and transfers linked to the removal of petrol subsidy and related reforms.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the latest July 2026 Federation Account figures show that a “troubling pattern” of unexplained differences has continued.
He noted that his earlier reconciliation of published figures had identified about ₦28 trillion requiring explanation up to June 2026, with the July data pushing the cumulative amount towards ₦30 trillion.
“The question President Tinubu must answer remains painfully simple: Where is the money?” Atiku said.
He cited the July 2026 figures, which showed gross statutory revenue of ₦4.359 trillion, while the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) approved a total distribution of ₦3.007 trillion to the Federal Government, the 36 states and 774 local government councils. Atiku argued that such gaps, along with other deductions and classifications, require full and open reconciliation.
“These are also government figures, not ours. The accounts are in the custody of the government, not the opposition. Therefore, the burden is on President Tinubu and his administration to tell Nigerians what happened to their money,” the statement read.
“Government cannot demand that citizens prove what happened to public funds whose collection, custody, deductions and disbursement are exclusively under its control. Publish the accounts, identify every deduction and beneficiary, show the transfers, show the savings, show the balances and show the dates.”
Atiku insisted that the savings and additional revenues generated by the subsidy removal and other reforms belong to the Nigerian people and “are not the private reserves of the Presidency or any government agency.”
“President Tinubu did not ask Nigerians to endure the agony of subsidy removal so that the proceeds could become unexplained stashed funds beyond public scrutiny,” he said. “Where is the subsidy-removal windfall?”
He challenged the administration to publish a complete month-by-month and beneficiary-by-beneficiary reconciliation of Federation revenues from June 2023 to date, clearly separating cost of collection, savings, transfers, interventions, refunds and every other deduction.
“If these trillions genuinely exist as savings, where are they and why is Nigeria borrowing so aggressively? If the money has been transferred, who received it? If it has been spent, what was it spent on? If it remains in government accounts, what are the balances today?” Atiku asked.
“These are straightforward questions. President Tinubu should provide straightforward answers. If the approximately ₦30 trillion is properly accounted for, President Tinubu should publish the ledger and show Nigerians where every naira went.”
Atiku stressed that Nigerians had already made significant sacrifices following the subsidy removal announced by President Tinubu in May 2023, and that they could not be asked to sacrifice their constitutional right to know what happened to public funds generated from those reforms.
The demand comes amid ongoing political debate over the economic impact of subsidy removal, with the Federal Government previously stating that the policy and related reforms had generated substantial additional revenues for the three tiers of government. Atiku’s latest intervention renews pressure for detailed, verifiable public disclosure of how those resources have been managed and utilised.
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