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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has expressed concern over the recent disclosure by the International Monitoring Fund ( IMF) that Nigeria omitted public expenditure equivalent to two percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the recent budget.
Atiku, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, on Saturday, said the Federal Government must uncover those behind the omitted expenditure.
The IMF, on Wednesday , revealed that Nigeria failed to record public spending equivalent to about 2 percent of its GDP in recent national budgets, noting that the development created a gap between the country’s reported fiscal deficit and actual financing needs.
The former Vice President noted that the revelation, which is coming on the heels of the scandal surrounding the controversial Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), paints the picture of a government where public institutions are increasingly being converted into instruments for opaque financial dealings.
According to him, “the Constitution is not a book of suggestions. Section 80 is unequivocal: no money shall be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund except in the manner prescribed by the National Assembly. Budgetary appropriation is not a ceremonial exercise; it is the legal authority upon which every kobo of public expenditure rests.
“If, as the IMF has revealed, expenditure amounting to two percent of Nigeria’s GDP was omitted from the budget process, then Nigerians are entitled to one simple question: Who stole the missing two per cent of our GDP?
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“This is no longer an accounting discrepancy. It is a constitutional, legal and moral scandal. Money does not simply disappear from a national budget. Somebody authorised it. Somebody approved it. Somebody spent it. Somebody benefited from it. Nigerians deserve to know who those people are.”
Atiku, who is also the African Democratic Congress ( ADC) 2027 presidential candidate, added that the IMF revelation reinforces growing concerns that the PFIPC scandal was not an isolated incident but part of a wider pattern of institutional capture and abuse of public finance.
“The discovery that a fictitious agency found its way into official government processes and budgetary allocations should alarm every patriotic Nigerian. Now, the IMF tells us that expenditure equivalent to two per cent of our GDP was kept outside the budget. These are not disconnected events. Together, they point to a dangerous culture of institutional corruption.
“The evidence of this institutional corruption is already staring Nigerians in the face. While the Federal Ministry of Health reportedly received only ₦36 million in releases for critical health interventions despite a budgetary appropriation of over ₦218 billion, the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council—a fictitious agency the Presidency now claims never existed—was reportedly allocated about ₦1.3 billion.
According to him, “It is both ironic and cruel that citizens are being asked to make endless sacrifices while the government itself cannot transparently explain where enormous public resources have gone.
“This is exactly how confidence in the government collapses. Fiscal credibility cannot coexist with secret spending. Transparency cannot survive where public expenditure disappears from official records.”
He added “the National Assembly cannot pretend not to have seen this revelation. The Auditor-General of the Federation, the Public Accounts Committees of both chambers, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission and every institution charged with protecting the public purse have a constitutional obligation to establish the truth.”
