Atiku knocks FG over N1.08t allocation to cooperative college

Former vice president and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has faulted the Federal Government over the allocation of ₦1.08tn to the Federal Cooperative College, Oji River, Enugu State, in the 2026 Appropriation Act.

He described the allocation as evidence of “a blueprint to defraud Nigerians.”

Atiku’s reaction followed an analysis of the 2026 budget by civic technology organisation, Tracka, which reportedly revealed that the Federal Cooperative College was designated to execute 2,791 capital projects spread across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Tracka, a public accountability initiative of BudgIT, monitors government budgets and tracks the implementation of public projects across Nigeria.

Its budget analyses have, over the years, highlighted irregular project allocations, questionable implementing agencies and concerns over transparency in public expenditure.

In a statement issued on Tuesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku commended Tracka for uncovering what he described as one of the most troubling examples of budget distortion under the present administration.

According to Atiku, the revelation contradicts the Federal Government’s repeated claims of fiscal discipline at a time Nigerians are bearing the burden of subsidy removal, multiple tax increases and rising public debt.

“Nothing exposes the hollowness of that claim more than a budget that turns a federal cooperative college into one of Nigeria’s largest project-implementing agencies,” he said.

He questioned the rationale behind assigning thousands of projects worth over one trillion naira to an institution established primarily for cooperative education.

He noted that the projects reportedly include roads, drainage systems, solar streetlights, markets, football pitches, dialysis centres, ambulances, water schemes, recycling plants and empowerment programmes across the country.

“It defies logic, public finance principles and the institution’s statutory mandate that a college established to promote cooperative education should suddenly become responsible for roads, drainage systems, solar streetlights, markets, football pitches, dialysis centres, ambulances, water schemes, recycling plants, empowerment programmes and thousands of other projects scattered across the federation,” the statement partly read.

He demanded answers from the Federal Government on the legal basis for the arrangement.

“Who decided that a cooperative college should become one of Nigeria’s biggest ministries by stealth? Under what law was it transformed into the implementing agency for 2,791 projects? Who nominated these projects, who approved them, who will supervise them, and who will be held accountable?” he asked.

Atiku argued that the disclosure casts doubt on the credibility of the 2026 budget and undermines the administration’s narrative of responsible economic management.

“This government operates a medieval financial system in which the national treasury is treated as the personal purse of the ruler—available to be spent, diverted or dispensed at will, with little regard for transparency, accountability or the public interest,” he noted.

He further added that a government asking citizens to endure economic hardship while claiming there is no money cannot justify channeling such a massive allocation through an institution that, in his view, lacks both the statutory mandate and institutional capacity to execute projects of that scale.

“A government that plans to spend ₦1.08tn through a cooperative college cannot claim to be fighting waste or promoting fiscal discipline. It looks less like governance and more like a blueprint to defraud Nigerians,” he stated.

The former vice president maintained that the revelations warrant serious public scrutiny and renewed calls for greater transparency and accountability in the implementation of the federal budget.

The controversy comes amid sustained criticism of constituency and special intervention projects contained in recent federal budgets, with transparency advocates repeatedly raising concerns about the use of agencies with limited mandates to implement projects outside their statutory responsibilities.

𝕤𝕖𝕖 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖/𝕨𝕒𝕥𝕔𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕧𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕠 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖