Atiku Questions Tinubu’s ₦17.5trn Spending on Pipeline Security In 12 Months
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has sharply criticised the Bola Tinubu administration following revelations that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) spent ₦17.5 trillion in just one year on securing fuel pipelines.
Updated November 30, 2025
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar
Describing the expenditure as “unprecedented and alarming,” Atiku said the disclosure ranked as “one of the most brazen financial scandals in our nation’s history.”
In a statement released on Sunday by the Atiku Media Office, he contrasted the alleged pipeline security spending with Nigeria’s fuel subsidy regime, which cost approximately ₦18 trillion over 12 years — a programme, he noted, that offered direct relief to millions of citizens, stabilised transportation, and helped keep food prices in check.
“For clarity, Nigeria spent roughly ₦18 trillion on fuel subsidy over a period of twelve years — a national programme that directly cushioned millions of Nigerians, stabilised the transport sector, and helped keep food prices manageable.
“Yet, under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the country has now expended nearly the same amount in a single year on the same subsidy and opaque pipeline security contracts awarded to private firms tied to associates and cronies of the President.
“Indeed, the action of the President is akin to robbing Peter (Nigerians) to pay Paul (cronies). This is not governance. This is grand larceny dressed as public expenditure,” the statement read.
Atiku challenged the administration’s earlier justification for removing fuel subsidies, accusing it of imposing hardship on citizens while diverting enormous sums to questionable contracts.
“Nigerians were told to tighten their belts, endure hardship, and ‘make sacrifices.’ Yet the same administration has now channelled ₦17.5 trillion — an amount that could transform Nigeria’s power sector, rebuild our refineries, or fund universal healthcare — into opaque security contracts whose beneficiaries are conveniently linked to those in power,” he said.
He also pointed to figures reportedly contained in NNPCL records, noting that the government spent ₦7.13 trillion on what it described as “energy-security costs to maintain stable petrol prices” and another ₦8.67 trillion on “under-recovery.”
According to him, these “two balablu nomenclatures” are new terms created by the Tinubu administration to disguise the continuation of fuel subsidy payments.
Atiku posed several questions demanding urgent answers:
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Who are the companies paid under these contracts?
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What justifies the jump in “energy-cost” from ₦6.25 trillion in 2024 to ₦8.67 trillion in 2025?
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Why has pipeline security become more expensive than a decade-long subsidy programme that served over 200 million citizens?
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Where are the audit reports, parliamentary oversight findings, and cost-validation documents?
“No administration that presides over this level of fiscal recklessness has the moral authority to demand sacrifice from its people,” he said. “Nigerians cannot continue to endure crushing inflation, punitive fuel prices, a collapsing naira, and widespread hunger — only for a privileged circle of political allies to pocket trillions under the guise of ‘pipeline security.’”
Atiku argued that the scandal confirmed what many Nigerians already suspected: that the Tinubu administration did not end fuel subsidies but “merely redirected public wealth from the entire nation to a privileged cartel anchored around the Presidency.”
He called on the government to take immediate action by:
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Publishing the full list of companies awarded the contracts;
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Disclosing the scope, deliverables, and timelines of each contract;
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Subjecting the entire ₦17.5 trillion expenditure to an independent forensic audit;
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Halting further disbursement until accountability is ensured;
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Explaining how such spending aligns with national priorities amid severe economic hardship.
“Nigerians deserve transparency, not deceit. They deserve leadership, not cronyism. And they deserve a government that places national interest above private enrichment,” Atiku said.