…faults reported ₦8.05bn budget for church- and mosque-related projects
The former Vice President of Nigeria and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has said the Tinubu administration must resist the dangerous temptation to drag priests, pastors, imams, and other religious leaders into its budgeting racket.
The Waziri of Adamawa stated this on Tuesday while expressing concern over reports that the Federal Government had earmarked about ₦8.05 billion in the 2026 budget for church- and mosque-related projects while millions of Nigerians grapple with crushing poverty, collapsing public services and an unprecedented debt burden.
Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said unlike roads, schools, hospitals, and other public infrastructure that were ordinarily identified by location and beneficiary, these allocations reportedly failed to identify many of the specific beneficiary churches and mosques.
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According to an analysis by the public accountability organization Tracka, about ₦1.91 billion has been allocated to church-related projects and ₦6.14 billion to mosque-related projects.
Atiku said that while faith occupies a sacred place in national life, it must never become a sanctuary for opaque budgeting or questionable public expenditure.
He said while some line items mentioned broad locations, the budget does not sufficiently disclose the identities of many beneficiary worship centres, making independent verification difficult and raising legitimate concerns about transparency and accountability.
He said the altar and the minbar are sacred spaces for moral instruction and spiritual guidance, not convenient hiding places for questionable appropriations, adding that the government must not seek to stain the integrity of religious institutions or infect men and women of faith with the leprous fingers of fiscal filth.
He noted that the most fundamental information remained conspicuously absent as religious bodies generally operate as Incorporated Trustees with distinct legal identities under Nigerian law, stressing that if public funds are appropriated for projects involving such bodies, Nigerians have a right to know exactly which churches, which mosques, and in which communities those projects will be executed.
He said, “Though we tread with profound meticulousness in matters that relate to the Almighty, so as not to attract spiritual jabs from the overly sensitive faithful, it is a desecration of faith to commit public funds in God’s name while withholding the information that would enable citizens to verify where their money is going. The government cannot invoke the sanctity of religion to evade the standards of openness demanded in the management of public resources.
“The Tinubu administration has crossed the moral red line by dragging the altar and the minbar into the marketplace of opaque budgeting. If these appropriations are genuine, the Presidency should immediately publish the names of every beneficiary institution, every project location, every implementing agency, and the legal basis for the allocations. Anything less will reinforce the growing perception that religion is being exploited as a convenient cover for diverting public resources.
“If genuine projects are deserving public support, let them be openly identified, lawfully appropriated and transparently executed. The government must keep its leprous fingers of fiscal filth away from the altar and the minbar.
“Faith should inspire integrity, not provide camouflage against accountability. No government should imagine that by invoking God, it can escape its constitutional duty to account to the Nigerian people.”