Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has accused President Bola Tinubu of presiding over one of many “most brazen {financial} scandals” in Nigeria’s historical past, following reviews that the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted (NNPCL) spent ₦17.5 trillion in only one yr on pipeline and vitality safety.
In a press release issued by the Atiku Media Workplace on Sunday, the 2023 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate mentioned the determine represented virtually the identical quantity Nigeria spent on gas subsidy over a 12-year interval.
“For readability, Nigeria spent roughly ₦18 trillion on gas subsidy over twelve years, a nationwide programme that straight cushioned tens of millions of Nigerians, stabilised the transport sector, and helped preserve meals costs manageable,” Atiku mentioned. “But, below President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the nation has now expended practically the identical quantity in a single yr on opaque pipeline safety contracts awarded to personal companies tied to associates and cronies of the President.”
He likened the expenditure to “robbing Peter (Nigerians) to pay Paul (cronies),” describing it as “grand larceny dressed as public expenditure.”
Atiku criticised the Tinubu administration for what he known as hypocrisy and deceit in its dealing with of Nigeria’s gas subsidy coverage. “The Tinubu administration justified the removing of gas subsidy by claiming the nation might now not afford it. Nigerians had been advised to tighten their belts, endure hardship, and make sacrifices. Nevertheless, the identical administration has now channelled ₦17.5 trillion—an quantity that might rework Nigeria’s energy sector, rebuild our refineries, or fund common healthcare into opaque safety contracts whose beneficiaries are conveniently linked to these in energy,” he mentioned.
The previous Vice President additionally pointed to discrepancies within the NNPCL’s information, saying that regardless of claims that subsidy has been eliminated, the federal government continued to spend closely below new nomenclatures.
“In some locations within the nation, a litre of PMS goes for over ₦1,000 and the justification for this by the Tinubu administration is the healthful removing of subsidy. But, in response to the information offered by the NNPCL, this similar administration has spent ₦7.13 trillion on what it calls ‘energy-security price to maintain petrol costs steady,’ and one other ₦8.67 trillion on what it calls ‘under-recovery.’ These two balablu nomenclatures — energy-cost and under-recovery are a brand new coinage of the Tinubu administration to deceive Nigerians on the federal government’s fraudulent declare that it was now not paying subsidies on petroleum merchandise,” he mentioned.
Atiku raised a number of questions on transparency and accountability within the reported expenditure, demanding to know who the businesses paid below these contracts had been; what particularly justified a 38.7 per cent rise within the quantity of energy-cost from ₦6.25 trillion in 2024 to ₦8.67 trillion in 2025; why pipeline safety now prices greater than a decade-long gas subsidy programme that served over 200 million Nigerians; and the place the audit reviews and parliamentary oversight findings had been.
“No administration that presides over this degree of fiscal recklessness has the ethical authority to demand sacrifice from its folks,” he mentioned. “The Nigerian public can not proceed to undergo crushing inflation, punitive gas costs, an never-ending collapse of the naira, and widespread starvation, just for a choose circle of political allies to pocket trillions below the guise of ‘pipeline safety.’”
Based on Atiku, the ₦17.5 trillion expenditure “confirms what Nigerians already know: the Tinubu administration didn’t finish subsidy, it merely redirected public wealth from your entire nation to a privileged cartel anchored across the Presidency.”
He known as on the Federal Authorities to right away publish the complete record of firms awarded the contracts; disclose the scope, deliverables, and length of every contract and topic your entire ₦17.5 trillion expenditure to an impartial forensic audit.
Atiku additionally requested the federal authorities to droop additional funds pending accountability and clarify how the spending aligns with nationwide priorities amid worsening {economic} hardship.
“Nigerians deserve transparency, not deceit. They deserve management, not cronyism. And so they deserve a authorities that locations nationwide curiosity above non-public enrichment,” Atiku mentioned.
He concluded that the reported ₦17.5 trillion pipeline safety expenditure was “not merely a {financial} anomaly —it’s a ethical indictment on the Tinubu administration and a clarion name for full accountability.”
