Atiku accuses Tinubu of failing to explain budget irregularities

Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has challenged President Bola Tinubu to address allegations of budget irregularities, warning that the President cannot distance himself from controversies surrounding the 2026 Appropriation Act and the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).

In a statement issued on Tuesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku alleged that attempts by the Presidency to defend the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, had failed to answer critical questions raised over the PFIPC controversy.

The former vice president claimed that the 2026 budget contained projects assigned to government agencies without the statutory mandate to execute them, describing the development as evidence of budget manipulation.

He cited allocations running into billions of naira for road construction projects under the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education, arguing that the agency was created to tackle the country’s out-of-school children crisis and not to implement road infrastructure.

According to Atiku, diverting resources meant for education to unrelated projects undermines the agency’s mandate and raises concerns about transparency in the budgeting process.

He also linked the latest allegations to previous claims of questionable budget insertions, insisting that the pattern suggested a broader problem in public financial management.

On the PFIPC controversy, Atiku questioned why Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi, who has made allegations against Gbajabiamila, had not been prosecuted if government officials truly considered him a fraudster.

He also asked why the council allegedly continued to operate from the Federal Secretariat and how its promoter was able to interact with senior government officials despite being under investigation.

Atiku argued that President Tinubu could not plead ignorance over the disputed budget because it was signed into law by his administration.

“If billions of naira can be hidden under agencies with no legal mandate to execute such projects, then either the President approved these distortions or he was completely unaware of what was happening under his watch. The first possibility amounts to complicity. The second amounts to an absentee presidency,” he said.

He further called on the National Assembly to explain how the disputed allocations passed legislative scrutiny and demanded an independent investigation into both the alleged budget irregularities and the PFIPC controversy.