Reforms: Atiku challenges Tinubu over how government transferred N750bn to 10m Nigerians without phones

*Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar again, challenges President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on impact of administration’s economic reforms, arguing Nigerians are further edged into deepening poverty, healthcare they cannot afford, school fees they struggle to pay, food beyond their reach and electricity bills that consume what little they earn

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

As the 2027 General Elections draw closer, former Vice-President (VP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar again, has interrogated some economic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

ConsumerConnect reports Alhaji Atiku, among others, particularly asked President Tinubu to explain how his administration shared N750 billion to estimated 10 Nigerian consumers without mobile phones.

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The former Nigerian Vice-President stated this  Thursday, October 1, 2026, in Abuja, FCT, while addressing a press conference at the National Secretariat of the African Democratic Congress in a speech titled: “Bola Tinubu Calls It Prosperity But Nigerians Can Barely Afford to Live”.

Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda , National Chairman of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), during the week, said over 10 million vulnerable Nigerians had received N75,000 under the Federal Government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programme thus far.

Yilwatda noted that many of the beneficiaries have limited or no access to mobile phones, television or social media, making it difficult for them to participate in online discussions about government programmes.

Atiku, however,  contended that contrary to the current living conditions of several millions of Nigeria’s in the West African country, if elected President come January next year, his administration would provide affordable welfare and protection of lives and property for all citizens.

He stated: “From my first day in office, I will put affordability and the protection of life at the centre of  government.

“We will begin bringing down the costs of food, fuel and power, improving access to healthcare and education, and restoring security to communities living in fear.

“I will account for public spending and measure progress by what Nigerians can afford and whether they can live safely.”

Ex-VP: How did government distribute N750 billion to over 10 million Nigerians?

Describing the actions of the APC-led government as unacceptable, the former Vice-President said: “Then there is your party Chairman’s claim that more than 10 million Nigerians received ₦75,000 each in cash transfers—at least ₦750 billion in all.

“Prof. Yilwatda says many beneficiaries have no phones.

“So, how did your government identify, contact and pay them, particularly in parts of Yobe and Borno where insecurity makes access difficult?”

Atiku also quipped: “Did officials deliver the money by hand? If so, who delivered it and where are the receipts?

“If it went into bank accounts, show the transaction records. Nigerians are not asking you to expose poor families.

“They are asking for an auditable account of how the money reached them. If you could find ten million people to pay, you can account for the payments.”

Atiku said: “Sixty-six years after independence, millions of Nigerians are fighting for things a free country should never put beyond their reach: food on the table, a wage that lasts the month, and a safe journey home.

“The past three years under Bola Tinubu have plunged Nigeria into the most severe cost of living crisis in our history. Families are not merely tightening their belts.

“They are skipping meals, delaying treatment and borrowing to survive until payday.”

He further asked: “And what has this government asked of them? More patience. More sacrifice. More faith in figures they cannot eat.

“While Nigerians are lectured about hardship, those in power preside over brazen waste, corruption and a budget process that makes a mockery of fiscal discipline.”

Atiku also said: “The people are told there is no money to ease their pain, yet government always seems to find money for its own appetites.

“Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy with one announcement, and no credible protection in place for the families who would bear the shock.

“Petrol, transport and the cost of moving food rose. He promised that the savings would benefit Nigerians.”

Lamentations over current security challenges

The Presidential Candidate of ADC stated: “Three years later, the pain has an address in every home. Bola, where is the benefit?”

“And beyond the market, our nation is bleeding.

“Armed groups have killed thousands and driven families from their communities.

“Farmers fear their fields. Parents fear for children in their classrooms.”

He lamented: “Families dread the call demanding ransom for someone they love.

“A government that cannot make life affordable and cannot protect life has failed the two tests that matter most to its people. Government

“This is not the Nigeria our founders struggled to set free. But I will not ask you to surrender to despair.

“Despair is not a strategy. We have a path to recovery, and we must take it.”

Atiku said: “Today, Bola Tinubu told us that the ’emergency treatment is over’ and the ‘age of prosperity’ has begun.

“A President may announce a new chapter in a speech. He cannot announce food onto a family’s table or money into a worker’s pocket.

“Bola, where is this prosperity?”

On inflationary trend

The erstwhile Vice-President stated: “Bola says inflation has fallen. A slower rise in prices does not restore what families have lost. He cites growth and rising exports.

“Nigerian businesses deserve credit for what they have achieved. But growth must improve lives. It cannot be a certificate of success that government awards itself while citizens struggle to survive.”

He further quipped: “Bola, you call Nigeria a patient with cancer. After three years of your treatment, why is it harder for Nigerians to buy food, pay for medicine or even get to work?

“Why does your government have more money while the people can afford less?”

The ADC presidential candidate further said: “You say Nigerians must endure the pain because you are curing the disease. But when a patient cries out, a doctor listens.

“He does not call the patient ‘regressive’ for asking when he will get better.

“He does not point to the hospital’s rising revenue and declare him healed. A patient who cannot afford to live is not proof that the treatment is working.”

He said: “And you cannot speak as though you arrived from the moon in 2023. Your party had governed Nigeria for eight years.

“If the country was as sick as you say, tell Nigerians what responsibility your party bears for its condition.”

Market realities and consumer welfare in Nigeria

Atiku challenged President Tinubu, and said: “Let us bring this argument down from the podium to the places where Nigerians make their daily choices: the filling station, the market stall and the breakfast table.

“In April 2023, a ₦30,000 minimum wage could buy about 118 litres of petrol. Today, a ₦70,000 minimum wage buys just 50 litres.

“The salary has more than doubled on paper; the petrol it can buy has fallen by more than half.

“The average price of one egg rose from about ₦88 in April 2023 to ₦261 in May 2026.”

Analysis of market indicators

A sliced loaf was about ₦500 in April 2023; by May 2026, the average was about ₦2,000 for a smaller loaf.

“These may look like small items in a  government report. In a family home, they are breakfast.

“They are the money left for a child’s lunch. If 2023 was the illness, why does your “cure” buy less fuel, fewer eggs and a smaller loaf of bread?”

He stressed that no mother struggling to feed her children is asking for “morphine”.

The ADC Presidential Candidate averred: “No worker spending his wages on transport is addicted to subsidy.

“They are asking what happened to the savings you promised and when your reforms will bring down the cost of living.

What we plan to do differently, by Atiku

He stated: “My fellow Nigerians, I will not ask you to accept another promise without asking how it would work. Working with my running mate and our partners in the African Democratic Congress, I will pursue a clear purpose: make life affordable again.

“We will introduce a capped, budgeted production subsidy tied to verified fuel refined in Nigeria, including fuel from modular refineries. Imported petrol will not qualify.

“The benefit must reach consumers through lower pump prices.

“We will publish the costs, independently audit the payments and cut government waste to help fund the programme.”

He also said: “The principle is simple: produce here, refine here, create jobs here and pay less here.

“If Bola disagrees, he should answer the proposal on its merits. Calling relief an addiction will not lower the price of petrol.”

Speaking directly to President Tinubu, Atiku said: “Bola, your speech is full of ‘we will.’ We will make farming cheaper.

“We will power factories. We will create jobs.

“We will bring down prices. You have been President for more than three years. Nigerians are entitled to ask what you have done with the time already given to you.”

Atiku stated: “You say that when farmers produce more cheaply and manufacturers spend less on electricity, prices will fall. Of course, they will.

“But farmers and manufacturers are telling you that they cannot produce cheaply now.”

He further explained: “A farmer who cannot safely reach his field cannot wait for your theory of cheaper food.

“A factory paying more to keep its machines running cannot wait for another promise of industrial growth.”

On youths, digital economy and tech startups

Atiku said: “You speak of young Nigerians building unicorns. I see their talent wherever I go. I see young people learning new skills, making things and looking for a chance to serve their country.

“They first need work that pays enough to get them through the month.

“Ambition is abundant in Nigeria. What is scarce is the chance to turn it into a living.”

Is student loan initiative an opportunity for beneficiaries?

Speaking on the Tinubu administration’s NELFUND initiative for needy and interested Nigerian students, Atiku stated: “And please do not describe every new loan as an opportunity.

“A student loan does not make education affordable when fees are rising.

“Under your watch, some institutions have raised fees by more than 400 per cent, and your answer is to offer students loans to pay them.”

He said: “Consumer credit does not make a worker prosperous if repayment takes another bite out of a wage already too small to live on.

“Tell Nigerians what these programmes have delivered, who has benefited and what they must pay back.”

Any impact of economic reforms on people’s welfare ?

The former Vice-President stated: “Bola says his government reforms have a human face.

“Nigerians have spent three years looking for that face in the market, at the hospital and on the road to work.

“What they have found is deepening poverty, healthcare they cannot afford, school fees they struggle to pay, food beyond their reach and electricity bills that consume what little they earn.”

He added: “We have chosen a different course, peacefully and together, through the power of our votes. The message is clear: Tinubu must go.”