N12.8tn Service-Wide Vote: APC’s reaction exposes guilty conscience — Atiku camp

The Media Office of African Democratic Congress, ADC, presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has accused the All Progressives Congress, APC, of failing to explain the reported N12.8 trillion Service-Wide Vote, SWV, contained in the 2026 Appropriation Act, describing the ruling party’s reaction as evidence of a “guilty conscience”.

This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by Atiku’s Strategic Media Associate, Olusola Sanni.

The statement was in response to comments by APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, who defended the Service-Wide Vote and dismissed Atiku’s criticism.

According to Atiku Media Office, the APC ignored what it described as legitimate concerns about the sharp increase in the Service-Wide Vote and instead resorted to personal attacks.

The Atiku Media Office questioned the justification for increasing the Service-Wide Vote from N638.34 billion in the 2024 budget to more than N12.8 trillion in the 2026 Appropriation Act, representing what it described as an increase of about 1,918 per cent within two years.

“It is remarkable that in his lengthy treatise, Mr. Morka failed to answer the central question: What emergency or unforeseen expenditure justifies increasing the Service-Wide Vote from ₦638.34 billion in 2024 to over ₦12.8 trillion in 2026?” the statement said.

While acknowledging that the Service-Wide Vote is a recognised budgetary provision, the Atiku camp argued that Nigerians are demanding explanations for what it described as the size, transparency and management of the allocation.

It maintained that if the allocation was justified, the Federal Government should explain why the provision had risen to an amount it claimed rivals the combined budgets of key sectors such as defence, education, healthcare and works.

The statement further alleged that several items captured under the allocation were either vaguely described or lacked sufficient details, raising concerns over accountability.

“Even more disturbing is the fact that substantial portions of this allocation are tied to projects that are either vaguely described or not described at all. A contingency fund without specificity, accountability or transparency ceases to be a contingency provision and becomes precisely what Nigerians fear — a slush fund waiting to be abused,” the statement added.

The media office also accused the APC of avoiding what it described as fundamental questions by resorting to insults instead of addressing the issues raised.

It further claimed that the Tinubu administration had previously faced public scrutiny over alleged duplicated budget provisions, religious project allocations and other controversial appropriations, arguing that concerns over the Service-Wide Vote were therefore justified.

The Atiku camp consequently called on the Federal Government to publish a detailed breakdown of the N12.8 trillion Service-Wide Vote, including the projects, beneficiaries, implementing agencies and legal basis for each expenditure.

The Atiku Media Office maintained that full disclosure of the allocation remained necessary to assure Nigerians that public funds were being properly managed.