Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has called on the National Assembly to launch a full, line by line investigation into every allocation under the Service Wide Vote in the 2026 budget, particularly a 2.19 trillion naira personnel provision he says remains unexplained.

Speaking through his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku described the 2026 federal budget as a serious blow to transparency, pointing to findings that 84 percent of the entire budget is concentrated in just ten ministries, departments and agencies, with 12.8 trillion naira held under the Service Wide Vote in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning. He noted that the vote stood at 638 billion naira in 2025, an increase of roughly 1,918 percent in a single year, and said no responsible government should expect citizens to accept such a jump without disclosing who will spend the money and under what authority.

He questioned how the Ministry of Finance has a personnel allocation of only 54.8 billion naira while the Budget Ministry carries a 2.19 trillion naira personnel provision under the same vote, asking who these workers are and where they are based. He said combined allocations to education, defence and agriculture fall below the amount hidden under the vote, and warned that unless the administration explains the figures, Nigerians would be justified in suspecting the funds are being set aside to finance the ruling party’s political operations and the president’s 2027 reelection bid. He said the budget increasingly appears to reflect fiscal manipulation at a time when citizens are being asked to bear hardship, and that every unexplained naira represents money diverted from classrooms, hospitals, security and economic growth.