Presidency Rejects Atiku Abubakar's Claims of Fiscal Recklessness

The Presidency of Nigeria rejected accusations of fiscal recklessness made by former Vice President and ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar. In a series of responses issued around August 3, 2026, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga dismissed Abubakar's claims of an unaccounted ₦7.98 trillion oil windfall as analytically flawed and based on outdated 2024 data.

Abubakar had characterized the government's economic scorecard as a desperate attempt at revisionism. He alleged that the Federal Government's debt to the Central Bank of Nigeria rose from ₦22.99 trillion in May 2025 to ₦40.38 trillion in May 2026, arguing the administration performed debt restructuring rather than actual repayment. He further criticized the government for failing to fully implement the new minimum wage.

Bayo Onanuga defended the administration's policies, noting that the dollar-denominated GDP recovered from $253 billion to approximately $377 billion. The government maintained that the debt-to-GDP ratio remains modest at around 40 percent and that the debt service-to-revenue ratio has fallen to under 60 percent from nearly 100 percent in 2022. The Presidency described the removal of fuel subsidies and tax reforms as necessary structural adjustments that have expanded fiscal space for infrastructure and shifted tax burdens toward higher-income earners.

To counter allegations of mismanagement, the government highlighted social achievements, including the disbursement of over ₦303 billion to 1.64 million students via the Nigerian Education Loan Fund and the revitalization of 3,000 primary health centers. The administration projected that inflation would trend toward 12 percent by the end of 2026.