Atiku criticizes government over ₦1.08tn for cooperative college

Former vice president and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has criticized the Federal Government for allocating ₦1.08tn to the Federal Cooperative College in Oji River, Enugu State, in the 2026 Appropriation Act. He called it proof of “a blueprint to defraud Nigerians.”

Atiku’s comments came after civic technology group, Tracka, analyzed the 2026 budget. They found that the Federal Cooperative College was set to carry out 2,791 capital projects across Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Tracka is part of BudgIT, which focuses on public accountability. They monitor government budgets and track how public projects are carried out in Nigeria.

Over the years, their budget reviews have shown issues like strange project allocations and doubts about the agencies that carry out these projects. They have raised concerns about how transparent public spending is.

In a statement on Tuesday from his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku praised Tracka for revealing what he called a serious example of budget distortion under the current administration.

He said the findings clash with the Federal Government’s claims of fiscal responsibility when Nigerians are facing the burden of subsidy removal, tax hikes, and growing public debt.

“Nothing exposes the hollowness of that claim more than a budget that turns a federal cooperative college into one of Nigeria’s largest project-implementing agencies,” he stated.

Atiku questioned why so many projects worth over a trillion naira were assigned to a college meant for cooperative education. He pointed out that these projects include roads, drainage systems, solar streetlights, markets, football pitches, dialysis centres, ambulances, water schemes, recycling plants, and empowerment programs across the country.

“It defies logic, public finance principles, and the institution’s statutory mandate that a college established to promote cooperative education should suddenly become responsible for roads, drainage systems, solar streetlights, markets, football pitches, dialysis centres, ambulances, water schemes, recycling plants, empowerment programs and thousands of other projects scattered across the federation,” the statement said.

He demanded answers from the Federal Government about the legal grounds for this arrangement.

“Who decided that a cooperative college should become one of Nigeria’s biggest ministries by stealth? Under what law was it transformed into the implementing agency for 2,791 projects? Who nominated these projects, who approved them, who will supervise them, and who will be held accountable?” he asked.

Atiku argued that this news raises doubts about the 2026 budget's credibility and weakens the government’s narrative of responsible economic management.

“This government operates a medieval financial system in which the national treasury is treated as the personal purse of the ruler, available to be spent, diverted or dispensed at will, with little regard for transparency, accountability or the public interest,” he added.

He also mentioned that a government asking citizens to endure economic hardship while claiming there is no money cannot justify sending such a huge allocation through an institution that, in his view, lacks the proper mandate and ability to handle projects of this size.

“A government that plans to spend ₦1.08tn through a cooperative college cannot claim to be fighting waste or promoting fiscal discipline. It looks less like governance and more like a blueprint to defraud Nigerians,” he said.

The former vice president believes these revelations need serious public attention and more calls for transparency and accountability in how the federal budget is carried out.

This issue arises amid ongoing criticism of constituency and special intervention projects in recent federal budgets. Transparency advocates have constantly raised concerns about using agencies with limited roles to take on projects outside their main responsibilities.