Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has launched a scathing attack on President Bola Tinubu's administration over the allocation of N1.08 trillion to the Federal Cooperative College, Oji River, in Enugu State, describing the budget provision as a "blueprint to defraud Nigerians" and a fundamental betrayal of the government's claim to fiscal discipline. In a statement issued on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku expressed grave concern over revelations from the 2026 Appropriation Act, independently analysed by the public accountability platform Tracka, which showed that the college had been allocated the staggering sum to execute 2,791 capital projects spread across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The former vice president questioned how a tertiary institution established to promote cooperative education could suddenly become one of Nigeria's largest project-implementing agencies, 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. "It defies logic, public finance principles and the institution's statutory mandate," Atiku declared, demanding answers to a series of probing questions. "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?"
Atiku argued that the disclosure completely undermines the Tinubu administration's repeated claims of prudent economic management, coming at a time when the Presidency has been asking Nigerians to accept painful economic reforms, higher taxes, and unprecedented borrowing as necessary sacrifices for the nation's long-term stability. "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," he said. The ADC presidential candidate accused the government of operating what he described as "a medieval financial system in which the national treasury is treated as the personal purse of the ruler—available to be spent, diverted or dispensed at will, with little regard for transparency, accountability or the public interest."
According to Atiku, a government that claims there is no money, removes fuel subsidies, raises taxes, accumulates unprecedented debt, and demands endless sacrifices from Nigerians cannot simultaneously operate a budget that appears designed to hide public spending behind institutions with neither the statutory mandate nor the institutional capacity to execute projects of this magnitude. "A government that plans to spend N1.08 trillion through a cooperative college cannot claim to be fighting waste or promoting fiscal discipline," he declared. "It looks less like governance and more like a blueprint to defraud Nigerians."
The Federal Government had yet to respond to the allegations as of the time of this report. However, the allocation has already sparked widespread debate, with many Nigerians questioning the logic of channelling over a trillion naira through a relatively obscure institution while critical sectors such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure remain chronically underfunded. Atiku's intervention has added significant weight to the growing scrutiny of the 2026 budget, as the opposition continues to challenge the transparency and integrity of the Tinubu administration's fiscal policies ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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