Abuja · Friday 11 September 2026
Atiku Abubakar has described the government's Federation Account allocations as a "scam of numbers", arguing that President Tinubu is dressing economic decline in bigger naira figures.
The government points to record monthly allocations. Atiku points at what the naira is worth. Neither is inventing the number they are quoting.
How both statements are true at once
| Measure | Direction |
|---|---|
| FAAC allocation in naira | Up, sharply |
| Same allocation converted to dollars | Down |
| What it buys in imported goods | Down |
| What it buys in local labour | Roughly flat |
A record naira figure and a smaller real budget are not contradictory.
The float raised the naira value of dollar-denominated oil revenue, which mechanically raised the naira sums shared out each month. That is arithmetic, not achievement. Whether a state is better off depends entirely on what it is buying, and states buy a great deal that is priced in dollars: vehicles, medical equipment, transformers, road-building plant.
The measure that would end the argument
Nigeria's economic debate is conducted almost entirely in nominal naira, which is the one unit guaranteed to flatter whoever is in office.
Why Atiku is a complicated messenger
He has held senior office and his party ran the federal government for sixteen years, during which the same nominal framing was used by his own side. That does not make the criticism wrong. It does mean the fix he is describing is one nobody in Nigerian politics has ever implemented while holding the numbers.
What a voter can actually check
Their own state. FAAC allocations by state are published monthly. Anybody can look at what their state received this year against last, then look at what has been built, repaired or paid for. That comparison is more useful than either national talking point, and it is the one nobody is offering because it produces thirty-six different answers.
Reporting: The Sun Nigeria, New Telegraph, Daily Nigerian and Nigerian NewsDirect.
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Whatever the news does this week, somebody at home still has to eat. The Send Home boxes land as a food shop, a care package or a learning kit. Naira pricing here.
