Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a blistering attack on the Federal Government over the allocation of N1.08 trillion to the Federal Cooperative College, Oji River, in Enugu State, describing the 2026 Appropriation Act provision as nothing less than a blueprint to defraud Nigerians.
Atiku’s reaction came on the heels of a budget analysis by Tracka, a civic technology organisation and public accountability initiative of BudgIT, which revealed that the cooperative college had been designated to execute a staggering 2,791 capital projects spread across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The projects reportedly include roads, drainage systems, solar streetlights, markets, football pitches, dialysis centres, ambulances, water schemes, recycling plants, digital learning centres, rice distribution programmes, medical outreaches and various empowerment programmes.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress commended Tracka for exposing what he called one of the most troubling examples of budget distortion under the present administration. Atiku argued that the revelation fundamentally contradicts the Federal Government’s repeated claims of fiscal discipline at a time when Nigerians are bearing the heavy burden of fuel subsidy removal, multiple tax increases and rising public debt.
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 former vice president questioned the rationale behind assigning thousands of projects worth over one trillion naira to an institution established primarily for cooperative education. He demanded answers from the Federal Government on the legal basis for the arrangement, asking who decided that a cooperative college should become one of Nigeria’s biggest ministries by stealth, under what law it was transformed into the implementing agency for 2,791 projects, who nominated and approved these projects, who will supervise them and who will be held accountable.
Atiku argued that the scale of the allocation bore no relation to the institution’s size, capacity or legal mandate, and said the arrangement violated basic principles of public finance. He accused the government of operating what he called 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. He further maintained that a government asking citizens to endure economic hardship while claiming there is no money cannot justify channelling such a massive allocation through an institution that lacks both the statutory mandate and institutional capacity to execute projects of that scale.
A government that plans to spend N1.08 trillion through a cooperative college cannot claim to be fighting waste or promoting fiscal discipline, Atiku declared. It looks less like governance and more like a blueprint to defraud Nigerians.
Tracka, in its analysis, had pointed out that the N1.08 trillion budget for the Federal Cooperative College, Oji River, exceeds the combined capital allocations of several federal ministries and agencies, including the Federal Ministries of Tourism, Arts, Communications and Solid Minerals Development, as well as the six agencies under the Federal Ministry of Interior. The organisation also expressed concern that many of the projects lacked clearly identified locations, making it difficult for citizens to monitor implementation or hold anyone accountable.
The former vice president maintained that the revelations warrant serious public scrutiny and renewed calls for greater transparency and accountability in the implementation of the federal budget. The controversy comes amid sustained criticism of constituency projects and questionable allocations that have become a recurring feature of Nigeria’s annual appropriation process, with the 2026 budget facing mounting scrutiny from civil society organisations and opposition figures alike.
Abuja Network News
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