Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has vowed to constitute an independent team of experts to trace N33.75 billion reportedly paid to 3.29 million vulnerable Nigerian households, after an audit report raised questions over whether the money actually reached its intended beneficiaries.
In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, yesterday, the former vice president said the audit findings amounted to a devastating indictment of a government that took away the poor man’s subsidy, increased his taxes and tariffs, promised support, and is now confronted with serious questions over whether that support ever reached him.
Shaibu quoted Atiku as saying the figures themselves exposed the cruelty and inadequacy of the intervention, noting that N33.75 billion divided among 3.29 million households amounted to barely N10,258 per household.
According to the statement, after removing subsidy, driving up transport fares, electricity costs and food prices, the President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s supposed intervention amounts to roughly N10,000 per household, and even that sum has now failed to withstand basic audit scrutiny.
“This is beyond a bookkeeping scandal. The intervention is insultingly small, yet even that small amount cannot be cleanly accounted for. If money meant for hungry Nigerians cannot be satisfactorily traced while access to records required for accountability is frustrated, then what we are witnessing is unapologetic wickedness against the poor. You cannot punish people with hardship and then play hide-and-seek with money appropriated in their name,” Atiku said.
He, however, commended the Auditor-General of the Federation, Shaakaa Chira, appointed by the Tinubu’s administration in October 2023, for putting his constitutional responsibility above political convenience.
“That is what institutions are supposed to do — protect the public purse, not the political comfort of those in power,” he said.
He noted that the situation was made more disturbing by the government’s own claim that more than N600 billion had been disbursed to over 10 million households, after Nigerians had earlier been told about 15 million households.
“It now appears that the Tinubu’s administration cannot give Nigerians a coherent account of how many households actually benefited from its intervention programme, while significant portions of the expenditure have failed to withstand independent audit scrutiny,” he said, insisting that “a ministerial announcement is not proof of payment. A name on a social register is not a bank alert.”
Atiku said the Auditor-General was reportedly questioning N33.75 billion supposedly paid to 3.29 million beneficiaries, alongside N36.74 billion in payments reportedly made without pre-payment audit and N4.62 billion for which payment vouchers were not produced.
“These cannot be dismissed as another set of bogus figures buried in government accounts. These are resources appropriated in the name of poor Nigerians who desperately need protection from a cost-of-living crisis aggravated by this administration’s rash economic policies,” he said.
Explaining the rationale for the planned probe, he said Nigerians could not reasonably be expected to trust the same government whose expenditure was under question to investigate itself.
He said, “My team will constitute an independent group of financial, audit, technology and public-accounting experts to interrogate the available records surrounding these cash-transfer payments. We will follow the money as far as the available public and institutional records permit. We will examine the beneficiary figures, payment channels, reconciliation records, audit queries and every material inconsistency that has emerged. When that work is completed, we will furnish Nigerians with the findings.
“There must be no black box around the poor man’s money. If Remita processed these transactions, the relevant records should be available for scrutiny. If beneficiaries received the money, there should be evidence. If access to records was obstructed, Nigerians deserve to know by whom and why.”
Atiku argued that what Nigerians needed was not another palliative announcement but purchasing power, and an economic policy that reduces what they spend daily on transportation, food and energy, leaving more money in the pockets of ordinary families.
“Our intervention will follow production. It will support domestic refining, increase local supply, reduce the cost of energy and ensure that the benefit reaches Nigerians through lower prices. When fuel costs fall, transportation costs ease; when transportation costs ease, pressure on food prices and household budgets reduces,” he said.
He maintained that the Tinubu’s administration could not take away the little subsidy that supported struggling families, tax them heavily, increase electricity and transportation costs, and then obstruct accountability over the intervention supposedly designed to cushion those burdens.
Atiku argued that if the beneficiaries were genuine, the government should publish the verifiable payment trail, insisting that if the money did not reach them, it should be recovered. “And if investigation establishes that any official diverted, misapplied or misappropriated funds meant for vulnerable Nigerians, that official must face prosecution. The poor have already paid enough through higher fuel prices, food costs, electricity bills, transportation fares and taxes. They must not also be made to lose the money appropriated in their name,” he said.