Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has described the federal government’s “much-publicised” increase in federation account allocation committee (FAAC) disbursements as an “illusion”.
Atiku, presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in a statement issued on Wednesday by Phrank Shaibu, his media aide, said the higher naira figures have not translated into greater purchasing power or improved living standards for Nigerians.
He said the increase in FAAC allocations must be viewed against the depreciation of the naira, inflation, declining purchasing power and mounting debt.
According to Agora Policy, FAAC disbursements rose from N4.43 trillion in the first half of 2021 to N18.72 trillion in the first half of 2026, representing an increase of about 322 percent.
“The disbursements stood at N5.53 trillion in H1 2022, N6.76 trillion in H1 2023, N13.46 trillion in H1 2024 and N17.43 trillion in H1 2025 before rising to N18.72 trillion in H1 2026,” Agora policy said.
However, Atiku said the rise in nominal allocations should not be mistaken for an improvement in the country’s economic fortunes.
“The arithmetic is brutal. In 2019, FAAC distribution was approximately N7.85 trillion, worth about $25.6 billion at the prevailing exchange rate,” he said.
“By 2025, FAAC had risen on paper to approximately N21.9 trillion, yet its dollar value had fallen to roughly $14.6 billion.
“So while government parades almost three times as many naira, the underlying dollar value is more than 40 percent lower.”
Atiku said the figures amounted to “money illusion”, arguing that the depreciation of the naira and rising inflation had eroded the value of the increased allocations.
“That is not an economic miracle. That is money illusion,” he said.
“You cannot batter the currency, allow inflation to ravage purchasing power and then wave bigger naira figures before Nigerians as evidence that the country has become richer. Bigger numbers do not cancel smaller value.”
The ADC presidential candidate said the effect is evident in the purchasing power of Nigerian workers, citing the minimum wage to illustrate his argument.
According to Atiku, N30,000 was worth roughly $83 in 2019 and about $65 by May 2023, while the current N70,000 minimum wage was worth about $53 at an exchange rate of N1,320 to the dollar.
“Think about that: the number written on the worker’s payslip has risen from N30,000 to N70,000, but its dollar value has fallen from about $83 to about $53,” he said.
“That is Tinubu’s money illusion in its simplest form. The figure in your hand is bigger, but the value in your pocket is smaller.”
Atiku said the real test of an economy should be what government revenue can purchase and the obligations it can meet, rather than the size of figures announced after FAAC allocations.
“If FAAC is truly booming, then where is the boom?” he asked.
“Where is it in the price of food? Where is it in transport? Where is it in electricity, healthcare, housing and jobs? Where is it in the purchasing power of salaries?”
The former vice-president also questioned why states remain heavily indebted despite what he described as unprecedented FAAC allocations.
Atiku called for greater scrutiny of government expenditure, including tax concessions, import waivers, revenue exemptions, duplicated projects and abandoned projects.
“You cannot defend concessions for the powerful, tolerate waste within government and then suddenly become an apostle of fiscal discipline when ordinary Nigerians ask for relief from unbearable living costs,” he said.
“Fiscal responsibility that operates only against the poor is not reform. It is cruelty dressed up in economic grammar.”
He said Nigerians experience the economy through the prices of food, transport, school fees, medicine and other necessities, rather than through government statistics or FAAC communiqués.
“Nigerians do not eat FAAC figures. They do not pay school fees with percentages. They do not buy medicine with press conferences, and they do not enter buses with government charts,” he said.
“They live in the real economy, and the real economy is measured by what their money can buy.”
The ADC presidential candidate said higher FAAC allocations should not automatically be equated with prosperity when purchasing power remains weak and government liabilities remain high.
