African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has accused the Tinubu-led administration of spending roughly ₦8.8 trillion in public funds outside the official budget, citing a new International Monetary Fund report that found the federal government failed to record expenditures equivalent to about 2% of Nigeria's GDP. In a statement issued Saturday, Atiku calculated the figure against Nigeria's estimated ₦441.5 trillion economy, calling it "a staggering ₦8.8 trillion in public funds spent entirely outside the statutory framework of Nigeria's official budget documents, unaccounted for, unaudited, and hidden from the Nigerian people." He described the finding as "the most consequential act of fiscal impunity in Nigeria's recent democratic history." Citing IMF Resident Representative Christian Ebeke, Atiku attributed the gap to large-scale government projects executed entirely outside standard budget channels, alleging that the administration has been "awarding multi-trillion naira contracts, moving massive public capital, and commissioning infrastructure projects entirely beyond the reach of the Auditor-General, the nation's procurement laws, and the legitimate oversight of the National Assembly." He drew a direct line to Tinubu's tenure as Lagos governor, alleging that the so-called "Alpha Beta arrangement" from that period β€” a reference to a private firm's role in the state's tax collection β€” has now been "replicated at national scale." Atiku further alleged that ₦800 billion had been deducted from state governments' statutory allocations without National Assembly approval or a court order, and suggested the combined sums point to the assembly of "a massive, multi-source political war chest" ahead of the 2027 elections. "The Tinubu administration is not reforming Nigeria's economy," he said. "It is financing its own political survival with money that belongs to the Nigerian people." The allegations arrive amid the unrelated but simultaneously unfolding controversy over the disputed Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), which Atiku has invoked repeatedly in recent days as evidence of what he calls a broader pattern of fiscal opacity within the administration. He has separately demanded an independent investigation into how the fictitious agency secured a ₦1.3 billion budget line despite the Presidency's insistence that it never legally existed, contrasting that figure with the Federal Ministry of Health's reported release of just ₦36 million against a budgetary allocation exceeding ₦218 billion. "Nothing better illustrates the warped priorities of this administration than a government that starves hospitals and healthcare programmes of funds while ghost agencies somehow find billions waiting for them," he said. The Presidency had not responded to the ₦8.8 trillion allegation at the time of reporting.