Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the Federal Government’s celebrated increase in monthly allocations from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, as a “scam of numbers”, arguing that higher naira figures do not necessarily translate into increased prosperity.
Mr Atiku, in a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said the apparent FAAC boom was a monetary illusion caused by the depreciation of the naira, inflation, declining purchasing power and rising debts of state governments.
He argued that while FAAC allocations had increased significantly in naira terms, their value had declined when measured against the dollar and the purchasing power of Nigerians.
“The arithmetic is brutal. In 2019, FAAC distribution was approximately N7.85 trillion, worth about $25.6 billion at the prevailing exchange rate.
“By 2025, FAAC had risen on paper to approximately N21.9 trillion, yet its dollar value had fallen to roughly $14.6 billion.
“So while government parades almost three times as many naira, the underlying dollar value is more than 40 per cent lower.
“That is not an economic miracle. That is money illusion. You 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.
“Bigger numbers do not cancel smaller value.”
Mr Atiku said the alleged illusion was more evident in the purchasing power of Nigerian workers, noting that nominal increases in salaries had been eroded by inflation and naira depreciation.
He cited the minimum wage as an example, saying N30,000 in 2019 was worth about $83, while the N70,000 minimum wage was worth roughly $53 at an exchange rate of about N1,320 to the dollar.
“Think about that: the number written on the worker’s payslip has risen from N30,000 to N70,000, but its dollar value has fallen from about $83 to 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.
“A worker can earn more naira today and still afford less food, less transport, less electricity, less medicine and less housing than before.
“Government counts the naira but conveniently refuses to count what the naira can buy.”
The former vice president said the true measure of an economy should not be the size of figures announced after FAAC meetings, but what the allocations could purchase and the obligations they could meet.
“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?
“Government cannot become richer on paper while the people become poorer in reality and then expect Nigerians to applaud the contradiction.”
Mr Atiku also questioned why many state governments remained heavily indebted despite what he described as unprecedented FAAC allocations.
He cited a September 2026 report based on data from the Debt Management Office, which he said showed that 12 states whose governors were approaching the end of their tenures had a combined debt burden of about N5.3 trillion.
According to him, the figure comprised N2.16 trillion in domestic debt and about $2.33 billion in foreign obligations.
“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 the most elementary question: where has the money gone?”
Mr Atiku said increased revenue would only amount to an achievement if it translated into debt reduction, infrastructure, improved public services and better living conditions.
“What is the purpose of a revenue boom if liabilities remain enormous? What is the meaning of record allocations if governments continue borrowing and citizens cannot see a corresponding improvement in their standard of living?
“Revenue is not an achievement merely because it enters a government account.
“The achievement is what that revenue buys, what debts it settles, what infrastructure it delivers and how much better it makes the lives of the people.”
He also accused the Federal Government of applying fiscal discipline selectively, urging it to scrutinise government expenditure, tax concessions, import waivers, revenue exemptions, duplicated projects and abandoned projects.
“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.
“Fiscal responsibility that operates only against the poor is not reform. It is cruelty dressed up in economic grammar.”
Mr Atiku said ordinary Nigerians measured the economy through their daily expenses rather than government statistics and FAAC communiqués.
“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.”
He maintained that higher naira allocations should not automatically be equated with economic prosperity, particularly when purchasing power was declining and government liabilities remained high.
“More naira is not automatically more prosperity. Bigger figures do not mean bigger value.
“When supposedly record allocations coexist with weaker purchasing power, enormous debts and outstanding obligations, government cannot simply shout ‘FAAC’ and expect Nigerians to stop asking questions.”
The former vice president said the ultimate test of the administration’s economic policies should be whether Nigerians could afford basic necessities.
“This is the contrast at the heart of the economic debate: Tinubu made life expensive; Atiku will make life affordable again.
“Affordability must mean cheaper transportation, lower pressure on food prices, more manageable energy costs, stronger purchasing power and an economy in which the income of ordinary Nigerians can once again meet the necessities of everyday life.”
He added: “The test is brutally simple: what is the money worth? What has it delivered? What obligations has it settled? And are Nigerians actually better off?
“Until those questions are answered, this FAAC celebration remains exactly what the numbers show it to be: more naira on paper, less value in reality.”
