Atiku Demands More Explanation Of ₦30Trn FAAC Figures As Feud With Tinubu Deepens
By Sunday Etuka
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has demanded that the Tinubu administration account for about ₦30 trillion in Federation Account revenues, deductions, savings and transfers, as his public quarrel with President Bola Tinubu over fuel subsidy and the economy escalated on Friday.
The demand came in a statement issued by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, responding to remarks by Tinubu that had accused Atiku of economic ignorance over his proposed petroleum sector intervention.
Shaibu said the president had no basis to lecture anyone on economics, given the state of the nation’s finances since fuel subsidy was removed in 2023.
“If economic ignorance had a presidential seal, Tinubu and his family would be its official logo,” Shaibu said, describing government claims of reform as “economic arson followed by propaganda about the ashes.”
According to the statement, Atiku is not calling for a return to the “corrupt, open ended subsidy bazaar” but is proposing what it called a targeted, capped, budgeted, time bound and independently audited production support mechanism tied to domestic output.
Shaibu also referenced NNPC’s audited accounts, which he said contain about ₦17.5 trillion in energy security costs and petroleum under recoveries, including roughly ₦7.13 trillion classified as Energy Security and ₦8.67 trillion in under recoveries.
“If subsidy is dead, why are under recoveries alive?” he asked. “If corruption was eliminated, why has opacity survived?”
The statement further criticised the president for pointing to increased FAAC allocations to states as evidence of reform success, calling the argument “economically shallow” and describing it as “robbing households to subsidise governments.”
Shaibu said Atiku wants the presidency to explain the disputed ₦30 trillion in Federation Account revenues alongside the ₦12.8 trillion Service Wide Vote contained in the 2026 budget.
“If Tinubu can mobilise an army of propagandists to attack Atiku within hours, surely he can find one accountant to explain his books,” the statement said.
The ADC presidential candidate’s camp maintained that Nigerians “should not be sentenced to another four years” of current economic policy.
