Former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar has described the Tinubu Presidency’s response to the United States Government’s assessment of Nigeria’s fiscal transparency as an embarrassing attempt to bury a serious indictment beneath bureaucratic grammar.
Atiku in a statement to Naija News issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu noted that the Presidency failed to address the substance of the assessment and accused the APC-led administration of choosing instead to dismiss it as an “external benchmark” that does not capture the administration’s reforms.
The ADC Presidential Candidate argued that the United States found that Nigeria failed to meet minimum fiscal transparency requirements and made “no significant progress” in addressing deficiencies concerning budget information, revenue and expenditure reporting, audit independence and public access to procurement information.
According to Atiku,
“What exactly is the Tinubu Presidency saying? Nigeria failed the minimum fiscal transparency test, and its response is essentially: yes, we failed, but the test does not tell the whole story.
“That is not a defence. It is an admission wrapped in grammar.
“If, after all the reforms this administration advertises, Nigeria still cannot satisfy minimum fiscal transparency requirements, the problem is not the assessment. The problem is the government.
“The contradiction is even more disturbing when the government’s appetite for taxation is considered. The CBN’s July 2026 Business Expectations Survey showed that 70.8 per cent of respondents identified high and multiple taxation as their biggest business constraint.
“Yet, the same administration understands the importance of tax relief when dealing with major oil operators, offering performance-based incentives to attract investment.
“So Tinubu understands that excessive taxation can discourage investment when large corporations are involved, but somehow forgets the same economic principle when Nigerian manufacturers, SMEs, traders and entrepreneurs are being suffocated by multiple taxes and levies.
“You cannot demand first-class compliance from taxpayers while offering third-class accountability in return.”
He further accused the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of taxing Nigerians to the bone while failing basic fiscal transparency tests.
Atiku challenged President Tinubu over his promise to publish how resources arising from fuel subsidy removal are being utilised, noting that the report may be coming too late after Nigerians were asked to endure three years if extraordinary hardship in the name of subsidy removal.
“Publish the financial details of the rehabilitation of government-owned refineries: how much was spent, who received the contracts, what was delivered and why Nigerians are again being promised that the refineries will ‘come back to work.’
“The answer to an accusation of opacity is transparency, not another press statement.
“If the U.S. assessment is wrong, disprove it with the records. If it is incomplete, complete the picture with the accounts.
“Nigerians have paid enough. They have sacrificed enough. President Tinubu should stop explaining and start accounting.
“The country is bleeding, and the evidence is no longer hidden. It is reflected in local economic data, in the daily struggles of Nigerian families and businesses, and in the assessments of international economic observers.
“Nigeria cannot afford another four years of failure disguised as reform. Tinubu’s failure must not be repeated,” the former VP stated.
