Nigeria: 'How Did You Transfer N750bn to People Without Phones?' - Atiku Tackles APC Chair

What the report says

Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has publicly pressed the All Progressives Congress national chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, to clarify how the federal government allegedly paid millions of poor Nigerians under a cash transfer programme if, as Yilwatda said, many of them do not have mobile phones. The exchange was reported by Vanguard and republished by AllAfrica on 1 October 2026.

Atiku’s response followed Yilwatda’s remarks after an APC National Executive Council retreat in Maiduguri, Borno State, where the party chairman said beneficiaries of the government’s N75,000 conditional cash transfer scheme were largely vulnerable people without phones, television or social media access. Atiku said that claim raised basic questions about how beneficiaries were identified, reached and paid, especially in insecurity-hit areas of Borno and Yobe.

In his Independence Day message, Atiku asked whether officials delivered cash directly, whether receipts existed, or whether the money went through bank accounts with corresponding records. He argued that if the government could identify and pay such a large number of people, it should be able to account for the transfers.

Atiku also used the occasion to criticize President Bola Tinubu’s economic record, saying living costs had worsened and that many households were struggling with food, health expenses and debt. His comments add to ongoing opposition criticism of the administration’s handling of inflation and social welfare, issues that remain central in Nigeria’s political debate.