Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the Bola Tinubu administration over what he described as insufficient and poorly accounted cash transfers to vulnerable Nigerians. In a statement issued on Saturday through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku questioned the distribution of N33.75 billion reportedly paid to 3.29 million households.
The numbers tell a troubling story. According to Atiku’s calculation, the amount translates to roughly N10,258 per household, a sum he considers inadequate given the rising costs of transportation, electricity, food, and taxes following fuel subsidy removal. Can such meagre payments genuinely cushion Nigerians against economic hardship?
Atiku also highlighted conflicting government figures on programme beneficiaries. While officials claimed more than N600 billion went to over 10 million households, earlier statements suggested 15 million households benefited. He further criticised N36.74 billion in payments allegedly made without pre-payment audits and N4.62 billion lacking payment vouchers.
The opposition figure didn’t mince words. “This is beyond a bookkeeping scandal,” he said, arguing that the intervention was insultingly small yet impossible to cleanly account for. Nigerians facing mounting economic pressures deserve transparency, and these inconsistencies only deepen public mistrust in government welfare programmes.
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