Former Vice President and Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has accused the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration of dressing up economic decline with inflated naira figures and selling Nigerians a monetary illusion.
This was as Atiku stated that fiscal responsibility that operates only against the poor is not reform, describing it as “cruelty dressed up in economic grammar”.
He noted that the Tinubu administration is into money illusion, saying that it cannot batter the currency, allow inflation to ravage purchasing power and then wave bigger naira figures before Nigerians as evidence that the country has become richer.
Atiku specifically said the much-celebrated Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) boom is nothing, but fake prosperity, stressing that the figures collapse the moment you test them against the exchange rate, inflation, and real purchasing power.
These were contained in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, stating that the FAAC figures represented “bigger Naira, smaller value”.
While detailing the economic indices of the figures, Atiku noted that in 2019, FAAC distribution was approximately ₦7.85 trillion, worth about $25.6 billion at the prevailing exchange rate while by 2025, FAAC had risen on paper to approximately ₦21.9 trillion, but its dollar value had fallen to roughly $14.6 billion.
In the words of Atiku; “So while government parades almost three times as many naira, the underlying dollar value is more than 40 per cent lower.
While using the minimum wage to drive home the point, Atiku stated that the FAAC distribution is not economic miracle.
According to him; “In 2019, ₦30,000 was worth roughly $83. By May 2023, that same ₦30,000 was worth about $65. Today, government boasts that the minimum wage has more than doubled to ₦70,000, yet at an exchange rate of around ₦1,320 to the dollar, that ₦70,000 is worth only about $53.
“That is Tinubu’s money illusion in its simplest form. The figure in your hand is bigger, but the value in your pocket is smaller,” he stated.
The 2027 ADC Presidential candidate therefore urged Nigerians to look around, not at government charts.
Atiku further asked; “If FAAC is truly booming, then where is the boom? Where is it in the price of food? Where is it in transport? Where is it in electricity, healthcare, housing, and jobs? Where is it in the purchasing power of salaries? If the states are claiming to be swimming in cash, why are they still drowning in debt.
“Government cannot become richer on paper while the people become poorer in reality and then expect Nigerians to applaud the contradiction,” he stated.
Atiku also cited a September 2026 report based on Debt Management Office data showing that just 12 states whose governors are rounding off their tenures carry a combined debt burden of approximately ₦5.3 trillion— comprising ₦2.16 trillion domestic and $2.33 billion foreign debt.
He further said; “More naira is not automatically more prosperity. Bigger figures do not mean bigger value. So, spare Nigerians the victory parade. You cannot boast endlessly about unprecedented FAAC allocations while states remain heavily indebted, pension and gratuity obligations persist, contractors chase payments, and governments continue to carry enormous liabilities.
“If the money is as unprecedented as we are constantly told, Nigerians have every right to ask: where has the money gone?”
Atiku pointedly accused the Tinubu-led Administration of selective fiscal discipline which is so harsh on the poor, but lenient on the powerful.
In the words of Atiku; “You cannot defend concessions for the powerful, tolerate waste within government, and then suddenly become an apostle of fiscal discipline when ordinary Nigerians ask for relief from unbearable living costs.
“Nigerians do not eat FAAC figures. They do not pay school fees with percentages. They do not buy medicine with press conferences, and they do not enter buses with government charts. They live in the real economy, and the real economy is measured by what their money can buy,” Atiku stated.
