By James Adamu
Former Vice President and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has described the 2026 Appropriation Act as fraudulent, questioning the rationale behind the allocation of over N1 trillion to the Federal Cooperative College, Oji River, Enugu State.
In a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku expressed concern over revelations from the 2026 Appropriation Act, independently analysed by Tracka, which showed that the Federal Cooperative College was allocated a staggering N1.08 trillion to execute 2,791 capital projects across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
According to the analysis, of the over one trillion naira appropriated for the college, N920,997,145 was for personnel cost, N220,833,301 was for overhead, and N1,089,446,962,812 was for capital expenditure, making a total of N1,090,588,793,258.
Atiku commended Tracka for exposing what he described as one of the most disturbing examples of budget distortion under the Tinubu administration.
“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,” Atiku said.
The former vice president stated that the revelations raised serious questions about the credibility of the 2026 budget.
“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,” he said.
“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 said the disclosures undermined the Tinubu administration’s claim of fiscal discipline, adding that the government operates a medieval financial system.
“This government operates 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. In a constitutional democracy, however, the treasury belongs to the Nigerian people, not to the President or his cronies,” he said.
“A government that says there is no money, removes fuel subsidy, 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.”
He further stated: “A government that plans to spend N1.08 trillion through a cooperative college cannot claim to be fighting waste or promoting fiscal discipline. It looks less like governance and more like a blueprint to defraud Nigerians.”
The Federal Cooperative College, Oji River, is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
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