- Atiku Abubakar questioned how the Tinubu administration’s own figures on cash transfers shrank from 15 million to 10 million households within weeks
- The former Vice President’s camp said the government’s arithmetic on ₦600bn in disbursements does not add up against the number of households it claims to have reached
- Atiku’s spokesperson demanded an independent audit, including state-by-state payment records, failed transactions, and verified household data
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on the Tinubu administration to account for a sharp discrepancy in its own figures on the government’s cash-transfer programme, questioning how 15 million households recorded as beneficiaries in July 2026 had become “slightly over 10 million” by August.
The challenge was issued through a statement sighted by Legit.ng, signed by Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, on Thursday, August 27.
Source: Getty Images
Shaibu noted that the Presidency announced on Thursday, July 16, that expanded cash transfers had reached 15 million vulnerable households, and repeated a similar claim on Sunday, August 2. However, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs told Nigerians on Wednesday, August 26, that only slightly over 10 million households had been covered.
“So where did five million households go? These are not opposition figures. They are Tinubu’s figures contradicting Tinubu’s figures,” Shaibu said in the statement.
Atiku: The numbers do not add up
The statement also challenged the financial logic behind the government’s claim that more than ₦600 billion had been disbursed.
Atiku‘s camp pointed out that with qualifying households set to receive ₦25,000 monthly over three months, totalling ₦75,000 per household, full payment to 10 million households would require about ₦750 billion, while 15 million households would push the figure beyond ₦1.1 trillion.
“So how many received one tranche, two tranches or all three? How many payments failed or were reversed? How many names were merely lifted from an existing social register and presented as evidence of actual payment?” the statement asked.
The statement described the government’s approach as converting poverty into a programme rather than tackling its root causes, arguing that fuel price increases had driven up transport and food costs, squeezed household budgets, and pushed millions into hardship before the government registered them as “vulnerable.”
Atiku’s proposed alternative
In contrast, the statement outlined Atiku’s position on reducing fuel and transportation costs as a structural fix, arguing that cheaper petrol would lower logistics expenses across the economy, benefiting farmers, traders, and bus drivers before any household reached the point of needing emergency cash support.
“A serious anti-poverty policy should reduce the number of people needing palliatives, not celebrate how many millions have become vulnerable,” Shaibu said.
Atiku’s camp called on the government to publish a full payment trail, including unique verified household data, payment tranches, state-by-state distribution records, failed transactions, reversals, and an independent audit.
Source: Twitter
“Until the Tinubu administration reconciles these figures and produces a verifiable payment trail, Nigerians are entitled to keep asking: where did the five million households disappear to?”
Alleged $16bn power fraud: Atiku dares Tinubu
Previously, Legit.ng reported that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar dared the Tinubu administration and its allies to either bring him in for investigation or stop recycling old allegations whenever his camp presses for accountability over Nigeria’s public finances.
In a statement sighted by Legit.ng and signed by Phrank Shaibu, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, on Wednesday, August 26, Atiku said the sudden resurfacing of accusations about the power sector and privatisation was a deliberate attempt to change the subject away from a question his camp has been asking: what happened to the money saved after petrol subsidy was removed?
Source: Legit.ng