By Kingston Magare 1.10.2026
African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has told the All Progressives Congress (APC) chairman, Nentawe Yilwatda, to make public details of a N75,000 cash payment to 10 million Nigerians under the Federal government’s conditional cash transfer programme.
Mr. Yilwatda had claimed that beneficiaries were largely poor and vulnerable Nigerians who did not have access to mobile phones, television or social media, making them unlikely to participate in public debates about the government’s policies. He said the programme had reached more than 10 million Nigerians through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.
But speaking Thursday in Abuja during a media conference Atiku raised a question: “Professor Yilwatda says many beneficiaries have no phones. So how did your government identify, contact and pay them, particularly in parts of Yobe and Borno where insecurity makes access difficult?”
He wondered if the monies were physically delivered.
“If so, who delivered it, and where are the receipts?” he asked.
Atiku added that if the payments were made through bank accounts, the government should be able to produce records showing the transactions.
“If you could find ten million people to pay, you can account for the payments,” he said.
Yilwatda had linked the cash-transfer programme to the Tinubu administration’s interventions for vulnerable Nigerians and said the funds were derived from savings following the removal of the petrol subsidy.