Atiku has berated President Tinubu, describing the government’s FAAC boom claim as a scam.
Philips News reports that the Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) boom is a scam because it has not added value to Nigerians.
This newspaper understands that the former Vice President made this disclosure in a statement by his spokesperson, Phrank Shaibu, which was shared on the micro-blogging site, X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, September 9, 2026.
Atiku noted that the much-celebrated FAAC “boom” is a monetary illusion that collapses once the figures are tested against currency depreciation, inflation, purchasing power and the mounting liabilities of state governments.
He warned that Nigerians should not be deceived by the spectacle of trillions being announced every month when the naira in which those trillions are denominated has lost enormous value and ordinary citizens are paying substantially more for virtually everything.
“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 the 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,” he stated.
Meanwhile, PhilipsNews recalls that President Tinubu said one of the benefits of his fuel subsidy removal regime was that governors received more allocations from FAAC in the last three years.
FAAC disbursed more than N3 trillion to the three tiers of government in July, bringing the total allocation to N16 trillion in the first seven months of 2026.
