Former Vice-President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has challenged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to account for what he described as about ₦30 trillion in Federation revenues and subsidy-removal gains that are yet to be properly reconciled.
Speaking on Wednesday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the July 2026 Federation Account figures had deepened concerns over transparency in the management of public funds.
According to him, his earlier reconciliation of published Federation figures had identified about ₦28 trillion requiring explanation up to June 2026. He added that the July figures had pushed the cumulative amount requiring public accounting to nearly ₦30 trillion.
“The question President Tinubu must answer remains painfully simple: Where is the money?” Atiku asked.
He noted that in July 2026, gross statutory revenue stood at ₦4.359 trillion, while the Federation Account Allocation Committee approved a total distribution of ₦3.007 trillion to the Federal Government, the 36 states and 774 local government councils.
Atiku said the gap between what comes into the Federation Account and what is distributed monthly had become a troubling pattern.
“The madness continues. Month after month, trillions of naira enter the Federation accounts, and month after month enormous amounts are removed under different classifications before the balance is distributed,” he said.
Citing previous months, he recalled that in January 2024, ₦2.068 trillion was reported as available, but only ₦1.149 trillion was shared. In June 2025, ₦4.232 trillion was available, while ₦1.818 trillion was distributed. In June 2026, ₦4.501 trillion was available, but only ₦2.551 trillion was shared.
“These are not accounting footnotes. This is the wealth of the Nigerian people,” he said.
The former Vice-President said the burden of explanation lay with the government, since the collection, custody and disbursement of Federation revenues were exclusively under its control.
“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,” he stated.
Atiku specifically demanded accountability for revenues and savings from the removal of petroleum and energy subsidies, noting that Nigerians were promised the painful reform would release resources for development.
“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.
“The savings and additional revenues generated by these reforms belong to the Nigerian people. They are not the private reserves of the Presidency or any government agency. Where is the subsidy-removal windfall?”
He argued that the gains should have been invested in inter-state rail, education, primary healthcare, public transportation and infrastructure to reduce the cost of doing business.
“Instead, Nigerians are paying more for petrol, electricity, transportation and food while the government celebrates record revenues without providing an equally transparent account of what happened to the proceeds of their sacrifice,” Atiku said.
He also questioned the contradiction of recording unprecedented revenues and savings while borrowing continued to rise.
“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 therefore challenged the administration to publish a month-by-month and beneficiary-by-beneficiary reconciliation of Federation revenues from June 2023 to date, detailing cost of collection, savings, transfers, interventions, refunds and other deductions.
“Transparency is not achieved by attaching convenient accounting labels to trillions of naira. It is achieved by opening the books,” he said.
“President Tinubu asked Nigerians to make sacrifices. Nigerians have sacrificed enough. What they cannot be asked to sacrifice is their constitutional right to know what happened to their money. If the approximately ₦30 trillion is properly accounted for, President Tinubu should publish the ledger and show Nigerians where every naira went.”