• Says it means more naira, less value, mounting debts
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The presidential candidate of African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has accused the federal government of dressing economic decline in bigger naira figures.
Atiku declared that the much-celebrated federal allocations “boom” represented economic monetary illusion that collapsed once the figures were tested against currency depreciation, inflation, purchasing power, and the mounting liabilities of state governments.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said Nigerians should not be deceived by the spectacle of trillions being announced every month when the naira in which those trillions were denominated had lost enormous value and ordinary citizens were paying substantially more for virtually everything.
Atiku stated, “The arithmetic is brutal. In 2019, FAAC distribution was approximately N7.85 trillion, worth about $25.6 billion at the prevailing exchange rate.
“By 2025, FAAC had risen on paper to approximately N21.9 trillion, yet its dollar value had fallen to roughly $14.6 billion.
“So while government parades almost three times as many naira, the underlying dollar value is more than 40 per cent lower.
“That is not an economic miracle. That is money illusion. You cannot batter the currency, allow inflation to ravage purchasing power and then wave bigger naira figures before Nigerians as evidence that the country has become richer. Bigger numbers do not cancel smaller value.”
Atiku said the deception became even clearer when translated into the everyday experience of the Nigerian worker, where salaries might have increased nominally while their real value and purchasing power had deteriorated.
He said, “Take the minimum wage as the simplest example. In 2019, N30,000 was worth roughly $83. By May 2023, that same N30,000 was worth about $65.
“Today, government boasts that the minimum wage has more than doubled to N70,000, yet at an exchange rate of around N1,320 to the dollar, that N70,000 is worth only about $53.
“Think about that: the number written on the worker’s payslip has risen from N30,000 to N70,000, but its dollar value has fallen from about $83 to about $53.
“That is Tinubu’s money illusion in its simplest form. The figure in your hand is bigger, but the value in your pocket is smaller. A worker can earn more naira today and still afford less food, less transport, less electricity, less medicine and less housing than before. Government counts the naira but conveniently refuses to count what the naira can buy.”
Atiku said the proper test of an economy was not the size of the figures announced after FAAC meetings, but what those allocations could actually purchase and what obligations they were capable of meeting.
He stated, “If FAAC is truly booming, then where is the boom? Where is it in the price of food? Where is it in transport? Where is it in electricity, healthcare, housing and jobs?
“Where is it in the purchasing power of salaries? Government cannot become richer on paper while the people become poorer in reality and then expect Nigerians to applaud the contradiction.”
He said the contradiction became even more glaring when the debts still carried by states were placed beside claims of unprecedented revenue.
Atiku stated, “And here is another question the FAAC cheerleaders must answer: if the states are swimming in unprecedented revenues, why are they still drowning in debt?
“A September 2026 report based on Debt Management Office data shows that just 12 states whose governors are approaching the end of their tenures carry a combined debt burden of approximately N5.3 trillion, comprising N2.16 trillion in domestic debt and about $2.33 billion in foreign obligations.”
Atiku declared, “So spare Nigerians the victory parade. You cannot boast endlessly about unprecedented FAAC allocations while states remain heavily indebted, pension and gratuity obligations persist, contractors chase payments and governments continue to carry enormous liabilities.
“If the money is as unprecedented as we are constantly told, Nigerians have every right to ask the most elementary question: where has the money gone?
“What is the purpose of a revenue boom if liabilities remain enormous? What is the meaning of record allocations if governments continue borrowing and citizens cannot see a corresponding improvement in their standard of living?
Atiku explained, “Revenue is not an achievement merely because it enters a government account. The achievement is what that revenue buys, what debts it settles, what infrastructure it delivers and how much better it makes the lives of the people.”