Adebayo Obajemu
Nigeria’s leading opposition figures, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, have separately called for urgent investigations into an International Monetary Fund, IMF, report which indicates that about N8.83 trillion in government expenditure was undertaken outside Nigeria’s official 2025 budget framework.
In separate statements, both politicians described the alleged off-budget spending as a major threat to fiscal transparency and accountability, urging the Federal Government to provide a full explanation of the expenditure.
Atiku, citing the IMF’s Article IV consultation published on July 1, 2026, alleged that the unrecorded spending represented about two per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product and amounted to “the most consequential act of fiscal impunity in Nigeria’s recent democratic history.”
According to him, “The Tinubu administration is awarding multi-trillion naira contracts, moving massive public capital, and commissioning infrastructure projects entirely beyond the reach of the Auditor-General, the nation’s procurement laws, and the legitimate oversight of the National Assembly. It is a parallel fiscal universe, one governed by executive whim.”
The former vice president further alleged that the reported off-budget expenditure, alongside what he described as the unlawful deduction of N800 billion from state allocations, suggested the existence of “a massive, multi-source political war chest being assembled ahead of the 2027 general elections.”
“When a government operates a secret treasury of this scale at precisely the moment it needs to purchase electoral outcomes, the conclusion is not difficult to reach,” Atiku said.
He called on the National Assembly to immediately convene investigative hearings into the IMF findings, while urging the Auditor-General of the Federation to conduct an independent audit of all alleged off-budget expenditures and publish the outcome.
Atiku also demanded that the Federal Government disclose every project, contractor, procurement process and official connected with the expenditure, restore the alleged N800 billion deducted from state allocations, and direct anti-corruption agencies to launch independent investigations.
Similarly, Peter Obi described the IMF report as evidence of “grand corruption,” arguing that the reported N8.83 trillion expenditure exceeded the combined 2025 federal allocations for education and health.
“The IMF now reveals that about N8.83 trillion in expenditure undertaken in 2025 is not reflected in the budget. This expenditure is not budgeted and is therefore not under legislative oversight or administrative scrutiny. This is horrible,” Obi stated.
According to him, the amount represents over 35 per cent of Nigeria’s 2025 capital budget and, if properly deployed, could have transformed the country’s education and healthcare sectors while creating jobs through industrial development.
“This is not an isolated incident. This is a pattern of grand corruption that has become part of this administration,” Obi said.
The former Anambra State governor further alleged that the reported expenditure reflected systemic failures in public financial management, insisting that “the APC government is grossly corrupt, incompetent, and insensitive.”
Obi reiterated his earlier call for President Bola Tinubu to resign, arguing that “the collapse of elementary forms of due process under Tinubu and the increased evidence of rampant looting of Nigerian public finances reinforce the need for greater accountability.”