- Rejects Purported Proposal To Defer Payouts Until After 2027 General Elections
- Reveals Oyo Identified Critical Capital Projects Stalled By Unilateral Federal Spending
A major fiscal storm has broken out between the states and Abuja, with Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde openly accusing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration of quietly burning through multitrillion-naira Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) dividends that rightfully belong to the 36 states.
Makinde, who is contesting the 2027 presidency on the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) ticket, revealed that after forensic reconciliations, each federating state was due an emergency windfall exceeding N250 billion. Instead, he said, the Federal Government pocketed and spent the entire cash pile without remitting a single kobo to the sub-nationals.
The Oyo governor dropped the political bombshell before a packed hall of community leaders, labour chiefs, and civil society delegates during a consultative forum on the state’s 2027 budget at the International Conference Centre in Ibadan.
Sounding audibly frustrated, Makinde painted a picture of deliberate bad faith from the centre, disclosing that technical consultants had already worked out the numbers and verified state entitlements before the money vanished into federal operational spending.
“They fooled us,” an impassioned Makinde told the audience. “The Nigeria LNG paid dividends to the Federal Government, which went straight into the Federation Account, but they spent it alone.”
The governor explained that states had already mapped out the anticipated gas billions for legacy public works, community hospitals, and food security interventions to shield hard-pressed citizens from the current cost-of-living squeeze.
“Each state should receive more than N250 billion, but Tinubu cornered it,” Makinde said. “We were planning towards this, identified projects that we can invest the money in to further expand the economy of Oyo State, but the Federal Government spent it alone.”
Makinde took sharp aim at quiet plans within official circles to push back the disbursement until after the 2027 general elections, warning that playing politics with money meant for ordinary Nigerians’ welfare crosses an unacceptable red line.
The allegations strike directly at the core of Nigeria’s fragile revenue-sharing structure, reviving bitter memories of perennial disputes at the monthly Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) over missing oil remittances and unauthorised deductions by central authorities.
While neither the Presidency nor the Federal Ministry of Finance has responded to Makinde’s direct accusations, the revelation sets up a volatile political showdown, piling pressure on governors from both the ruling party and the opposition to demand an immediate public audit of every kobo remitted by the NLNG.
With the countdown to 2027 already intensifying, Makinde’s claims have transformed an ongoing dispute over federation revenue into a high-stakes campaign weapon, testing whether the centre can account for the gas proceeds or face a rebellion from cash-strapped states across the country.
