KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Atiku Abubakar attacked the Tinubu government for putting N22.15bn in the 2026 Appropriation Act to build and renovate 106 palaces nationwide.
- In a Thursday statement signed by his aide, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the 1999 Constitution leaves traditional institutions to states and councils, not Abuja.
- Atiku asked the Presidency, Budget Office and MDAs to publish the 106 palaces, locations, allocations, procurement details and constitutional basis.
Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has criticised the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government’s decision to allocate ₦22.15 billion in the 2026 Appropriation Act for the construction and renovation of 106 palaces across the country, describing the move as unconstitutional.
CityNews reports that Atiku said the allocation amounted to an attempt by President Bola Tinubu’s administration to use the national budget to assume responsibilities not assigned to the Federal Government under the 1999 Constitution.
The opposition leader made the remarks in a statement issued on Thursday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
According to Atiku, the Constitution clearly defines the responsibilities of each tier of government and does not empower the Federal Government to construct or renovate palaces belonging to traditional institutions.
He said, “President Tinubu swore an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, not to amend it through the Appropriation Act. Traditional institutions are matters within the constitutional competence of state and local governments. A federal budget cannot lawfully be used to assume responsibilities that the Constitution has assigned elsewhere.”
Questioning the legal basis for the expenditure, Atiku added, “Under which provision of the Constitution is the Federal Government appropriating ₦22.15 billion from the Federation Account for the construction and renovation of 106 palaces? Which Constitution is President Tinubu operating?”
He argued that the only constitutional reference to traditional institutions appears in the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution, which allows states to establish Councils of Chiefs to advise governors on chieftaincy and customary law matters.
According to him, the Constitution leaves the creation, administration and funding of traditional institutions to state governments.
“President Tinubu cannot, by the instrument of an Appropriation Act, assume powers that the Constitution deliberately withheld from the Federal Government,” he stated.
The former Vice President also criticised what he described as the Federal Government’s failure to disclose the identities of the traditional rulers, the locations of the proposed projects and the communities expected to benefit from the allocation.
He said, “Government wants Nigerians to approve ₦22.15 billion for 106 palace projects, yet it cannot identify the beneficiaries or tell the nation where those palaces are located. Every road, school, hospital and constituency project in the national budget carries a location. Why are these projects hidden? That is not budgeting; it is writing a blank cheque for corruption.”
According to Atiku, the lack of transparency raises concerns that the projects may exist only on paper.
He added, “If these projects are genuine, publish the names of the palaces, the traditional rulers, their locations, the implementing agencies and the contractors. The refusal to do so leaves Nigerians with only one conclusion—that this may be another elaborate conduit for siphoning public funds.”
Atiku said the national budget should serve as both a financial and constitutional document reflecting the priorities of government.
He argued that Nigerians continued to grapple with rising inflation, worsening insecurity, declining purchasing power and economic hardship despite successive budgetary allocations.
“The Nigerian people – not politically convenient projects – must remain the centerpiece of every national budget. Unfortunately, under the Tinubu administration, fiscal appropriations appear to have elevated official corruption above public service,” he said.
He added that, “Hunger has deepened, inflation remains crushing, insecurity persists, industries are shutting down and purchasing power continues to decline.”
Atiku stressed that his criticism was not directed at traditional rulers but at what he described as an opaque budgeting process.
“Our royal fathers deserve dignity and respect. They must not be used as unwilling instruments to legitimise opaque and constitutionally questionable budgetary allocations. If this administration truly respects the traditional institution, it should stop hiding behind it,” he said.
The former Vice President called on the Presidency, the Budget Office and relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies to publish the complete list of the 106 palaces, their locations, the amounts allocated to each project, the constitutional basis for the expenditure and details of the procurement process.
He concluded, “The national treasury is not a Bourdillon based private vault, and the Appropriation Act is not a license to suspend the Constitution. No government can claim to uphold the rule of law while appropriating public funds for projects it can not constitutionally undertake and whose beneficiaries it refuses to identify.”
