Obi and Atiku Demand Probe of N8.83tn IMF Off-Budget Spending Claim

Peter Obi renewed his call for President Bola Tinubu to resign and Atiku Abubakar demanded investigations by the EFCC and ICPC on Saturday, July 5, 2026, after the IMF’s Article IV Consultation report, published July 1 and reported by Reuters, flagged approximately N8.83 trillion in public expenditure incurred in 2025 that was not reflected in Nigeria’s official budget documents.

Obi described the unrecorded spending as grand corruption of the highest order and the most consequential fiscal scandal of the Tinubu administration. He said the N8.83 trillion, which he noted exceeded the combined education and health budgets for 2025, was spent entirely outside legislative oversight and administrative scrutiny. He framed it as evidence not of an isolated incident but of a pattern of deliberate opacity in public financial management.

Atiku Calls It Fiscal Impunity

Atiku described the IMF revelation as the most consequential act of fiscal impunity in Nigeria’s recent democratic history. In a personally signed statement, he demanded six immediate actions, including emergency National Assembly investigative hearings, an independent audit by the Auditor-General of the Federation, and a formal probe by the EFCC and ICPC. Atiku linked the alleged off-budget practice to what he called the Lagos playbook associated with Tinubu’s tenure as Lagos governor, alleging it was being replicated at the federal level.

Former Finance Minister Wale Edun responded on behalf of the federal government, saying all expenditure was backed by duly enacted Appropriation Acts, Supplementary Appropriation Acts, or other statutory authorisations. He explained that multi-year capital projects spanning several budget cycles were implemented in line with approved capital rollover provisions and should not be misconstrued as unbudgeted spending. He described the opposition’s characterisation as unfounded and politically motivated.

IMF Resident Rep Cited as Source

However, Atiku cited IMF Resident Representative Christian Ebeke as his source, saying the discrepancy arose from large-scale government projects executed entirely off-budget. Civil society groups and BudgIT called for the National Assembly to demand a full accounting from the Finance Ministry. Consequently, the N8.83 trillion allegation is now the dominant fiscal controversy of the week and threatens to overshadow the government’s infrastructure commissioning narrative.