Atiku to Tinubu: Explain N12.8t service-wide vote in 2026 budget to Nigerians

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has demanded that President Bola Tinubu explain an alleged unprecedented N12.8 trillion allocation to the Service-Wide Vote (SWV) in the 2026 budget.

He accused the President Tinubu-led administration of using the 2026 federal budget to bury trillions of naira in unaccountable spending, describing the allocation under the SWV as a major threat to transparency and fiscal accountability.

Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2027 election, made the allegation in a statement issued on Monday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.

He claimed that 84 per cent of the 2026 budget is concentrated in 10 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), with N12.8 trillion reportedly warehoused under the SWV in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

According to him, the SWV, a discretionary budget line, jumped from N638 billion in 2025 to N12.8 trillion this year, a nearly 1,918 per cent rise that he called one of the starkest examples of fiscal opacity in the country’s democratic era.

Atiku zeroed in on the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, where he said N2.19 trillion of the SWV is listed as personnel costs, dwarfing the N54.8 billion allocated for salaries at the Federal Ministry of Finance.

“Who exactly are the workers earning ₦2.19 trillion? Where are they? What offices do they occupy? What agencies do they belong to?” he asked, describing the figures as budgetary absurdity rather than legitimate planning.

The former Vice President argued that the sums hidden under the SWV now exceed the combined allocations for education, defence and agriculture, and he suggested a political motive behind the concealment.

He said Nigerians would be justified in suspecting the money is being positioned to fund the ruling party’s campaign machinery and Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027 unless the administration accounts for it in full.

He described the entire budget as emblematic of a wider credibility problem, arguing that a government asking citizens to endure hardship cannot simultaneously shield trillions of naira behind vague headings without forfeiting public trust.

Atiku charged the National Assembly to launch a line-by-line probe of the Service-Wide Vote, especially the N2.19 trillion personnel allocation, and to compel full disclosure of who benefits from it and under what legal authority.

“It is time to open the books, expose the truth and restore integrity to Nigeria’s budgeting process,” he said.

𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖/𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖