Citing Audit Report, Atiku Vows to Investigate ₦33.75 Billion Cash Transfer Scheme

Atiku Abubakar says he will assemble an independent team of experts to trace ₦33.75 billion reportedly paid to 3.29 million vulnerable Nigerian households. The pledge follows an audit report that questioned whether the money reached its intended beneficiaries.

In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the African Democratic Congress presidential candidate described the findings as a serious indictment of the government. He said the administration had removed subsidies, increased taxes and tariffs, promised relief, and now faced questions about whether that support reached poor Nigerians.

Atiku said the figures showed how limited the intervention was. Dividing ₦33.75 billion among 3.29 million households amounts to about ₦10,258 per household, he said. After higher transport fares, electricity costs and food prices, he argued, the government’s intervention amounted to roughly ₦10,000 per household, and even that sum had not survived basic audit scrutiny.

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This is beyond a bookkeeping scandal. The intervention is insultingly small, yet even that small amount cannot be cleanly accounted for. If money meant for hungry Nigerians cannot be satisfactorily traced while access to records required for accountability is frustrated, then what we are witnessing is unapologetic wickedness against the poor. You cannot punish people with hardship and then play hide-and-seek with money appropriated in their name.

“This is beyond a bookkeeping scandal. The intervention is insultingly small, yet even that small amount cannot be cleanly accounted for,” Atiku said. He also praised Auditor-General of the Federation Shaakaa Chira, appointed by President Bola Tinubu’s administration in October 2023, for putting constitutional responsibilities ahead of political convenience.

Atiku pointed to what he called conflicting government accounts. The government has reportedly claimed that more than ₦600 billion went to over 10 million households, after Nigerians had earlier been told the programme covered about 15 million households. He said the administration could not provide a coherent account of how many households benefited. The audit reportedly questioned ₦33.75 billion in payments to 3.29 million beneficiaries, alongside ₦36.74 billion paid without pre-payment audits and ₦4.62 billion without produced payment vouchers.

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That is what institutions are supposed to do, protect the public purse, not the political comfort of those in power.