Atiku faults FG over ₦1.08tn allocation to cooperative college

Former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar has strongly criticized the Federal Government's budget, specifically targeting the allocation of ₦1.08 trillion to the Federal Cooperative College in Oji River for the 2026 fiscal year. Abubakar described this move as a "blueprint to defraud Nigerians" and a stark contradiction to the administration's repeated assertions of fiscal discipline, especially as citizens grapple with subsidy removals, tax increases, and rising public debt.

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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.

His reaction followed an analysis by the civic technology organization Tracka, which revealed that the cooperative college was designated to execute 2,791 capital projects across Nigeria. Tracka, a public accountability initiative of BudgIT, monitors government budgets and project implementation. Abubakar commended Tracka for uncovering what he termed one of the most troubling examples of budget distortion under the current government.

"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," Abubakar stated in a release issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu. He questioned the logic of assigning such a vast number of diverse projects, including roads, drainage systems, solar streetlights, markets, football pitches, dialysis centers, ambulances, water schemes, recycling plants, and empowerment programs, to an institution established primarily for cooperative education.

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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.

Abubakar demanded an explanation from the Federal Government regarding the legal foundation for this 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. The disclosure, he argued, casts doubt on the transparency and efficiency of public expenditure.

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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?