Atiku Challenges Tinubu Over ₦22bn Palace Projects

(Atiku Abubakar And Bola Tinubu. Photo by Vanguard News)

Atiku Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, told President Bola Tinubu that his administration has no constitutional business financing the building and renovation of palaces for traditional rulers.

He called the ₦22.15 billion allotted for 106 such projects in the 2026 Appropriation Act a constitutional aberration and a tool for official corruption and illegal activity.

In a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president argued that the Nigerian Constitution is clear on the distribution of governmental responsibilities and does not empower the Federal Government to construct or renovate palaces belonging to traditional institutions.

He maintained that President Tinubu took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, not to alter it through the Appropriation Act.

Adding that matters concerning traditional institutions fall within the constitutional purview of state and local governments, and that a federal budget cannot lawfully be used to take on responsibilities the Constitution assigns elsewhere.

Atiku said the question facing Nigerians was simple: under what constitutional provision is the Federal Government appropriating ₦22.15 billion from the Federation Account for the construction and renovation of 106 palaces, and which version of the Constitution the President was operating under.

He explained that the 1999 Constitution neither established, funded nor assigned any executive responsibility over traditional institutions to the Federal Government, noting that its only mention of traditional institutions appears in the Third Schedule, Part II, which simply allows states to set up a Council of Chiefs to advise governors on chieftaincy and customary law matters.

Beyond that limited advisory function, he said, the Constitution leaves the creation, administration and funding of traditional institutions to state governments and their respective Houses of Assembly, arguing that the President cannot use an Appropriation Act to assume powers deliberately withheld from the Federal Government.

He further noted that the constitutional breach was worsened by the Federal Government’s refusal to disclose the identities of the traditional rulers involved, the locations of the projects, and the communities where the palaces are situated, describing this as an open invitation to corruption.

He added that the secrecy surrounding the allocations raised legitimate suspicion that the projects might exist only on paper, and that even the traditional rulers in whose names the funds were appropriated may never benefit from them.

Atiku stated that a national budget is more than a financial document, but a moral and constitutional statement of government priorities.

He said Nigeria’s royal fathers deserve dignity and respect and should not be used as unwilling tools to legitimise opaque and constitutionally questionable budgetary allocations, adding that if the administration truly respects traditional institutions, it should stop hiding behind them.

He called on the Presidency, the Budget Office and all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies to immediately publish the full list of the 106 palaces, their locations, the amounts allocated to each project, the constitutional basis for the expenditure, and the procurement process through which contracts will be awarded.

He declared that the national treasury is not a private vault and that the Appropriation Act is not a license to suspend the Constitution, insisting that no government can claim to uphold the rule of law while appropriating public funds for projects it has no constitutional power to undertake and whose beneficiaries it refuses to identify.