Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has questioned the Federal Government over the reported N600 billion spent on cash transfers to vulnerable households across Nigeria.
Atiku, through his media team in a statement on Thursday, demanded clarification over the number of households that actually benefited from the programme, citing conflicting figures released by the Presidency and the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Bernard Doro.
The Presidency had stated on July 16 and August 2, 2026, that the Tinubu administration’s expanded cash transfer programme had reached 15 million vulnerable households.
However, on August 26, Doro told Nigerians that the programme had reached only “slightly over 10 million households.”
Reacting to the discrepancy, Atiku questioned how five million households could be missing from the figures previously announced by the Presidency.
“So where did five million households go? These are not opposition figures. They are Tinubu’s figures contradicting Tinubu’s figures,” Atiku said.
He also raised questions about the government’s reported expenditure. According to him, qualifying households were expected to receive N25,000 monthly for three months, amounting to N75,000 per household.
Atiku argued that paying the full amount to 10 million households would amount to about N750 billion, while reaching 15 million households would push the figure above N1.1 trillion — both significantly higher than the government’s reported expenditure of just over N600 billion.
He therefore called on the Tinubu administration to urgently publish details of the households that received the payments and provide evidence that the funds were actually disbursed.
“How many names were merely lifted from an existing social register and presented as evidence of actual payment?” he asked.
“A name on a social register is not a bank alert. Counting people in a database is not the same thing as proving money reached them,” Atiku added.
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