Atiku Abubakar, the ADC presidential candidate, is calling for a formal, independent investigation into a N6.44 billion allocation earmarked for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. This request follows the discovery that the funds were budgeted even though Nigeria was eliminated from the tournament in November 2025, weeks before the National Assembly reviewed the 2026 budget.
Phrank Shaibu, an aide to Atiku, questioned the logic of this expenditure. He asked who approved the allocation and who stood to profit from a project that served no purpose at the time of its inclusion. Atiku argued that this reflects a systemic failure in the budgeting process, suggesting that public funds are being wasted on unnecessary items.
Atiku also linked this spending to the ongoing controversy involving the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC). He claimed the arrest of PFIPC’s self-appointed leader, Adeniyi Adeyemi, is a strategic move by the Bola Tinubu administration to shift blame onto opposition members rather than addressing the actual security and administrative lapses that allowed a fictitious organization to operate from the Federal Secretariat.
According to Atiku, the fact that an unauthorized group could gain diplomatic recognition and secure a N1.3 billion provision in the 2026 budget suggests either high-level government complicity or a complete collapse of oversight. He warned against current attempts to handle these investigations internally, citing a lack of credibility, and urged the National Assembly to establish a bipartisan, independent panel to uncover the truth.
