Atiku slams Tinubu over “₦17.5tn pipeline security scandal”
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has sharply criticised the Bola Tinubu administration following reports that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) spent an unprecedented ₦17.5 trillion in just one year on securing fuel pipelines.
Describing the revelation as both “alarming” and “one of the most brazen financial scandals in our nation’s history,” Atiku said in a Sunday statement issued by his Media Office that the expenditure rivals Nigeria’s total fuel subsidy bill over 12 years. According to him, the country previously spent about ₦18 trillion on subsidies that directly benefited millions of citizens, stabilised transportation, and kept food prices in check—yet nearly the same amount has now allegedly been channelled into opaque security contracts within a single year.
Atiku accused the Tinubu government of funnelling public funds into deals linked to presidential associates, calling it “grand larceny dressed as public expenditure.” He argued that while Nigerians were urged to endure hardship after subsidy removal, the administration diverted ₦17.5 trillion into contracts that could have otherwise transformed the nation’s power sector, revived refineries, or funded universal healthcare.
Citing NNPCL records, he pointed to ₦7.13 trillion labelled as “energy-security cost” and another ₦8.67 trillion as “under-recovery,” dismissing the terms as deceptive “balablu nomenclatures” used to mask the continued payment of subsidies.
Atiku raised several questions demanding public scrutiny, including the identities of companies benefiting from the contracts, the justification for a 38.7% rise in energy-security costs, and why pipeline protection now exceeds the cost of a decade-long subsidy programme that served more than 200 million Nigerians. He insisted that no government overseeing such “fiscal recklessness” has the moral authority to request sacrifice from its citizens.
He demanded a full forensic audit, publication of all contract details, disclosure of beneficiaries, and a suspension of further payments until transparency is ensured.
The controversy follows reports that the federal government accumulated ₦17.5 trillion in debt to NNPCL for pipeline protection and energy-security operations in the 2024 financial year—raising fresh concerns about President Tinubu’s May 2023 declaration that “fuel subsidy is gone,” despite indications that the state may still be indirectly subsidising petrol prices.
