Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar on Friday asked President Bola Tinubu to disclose to Nigerians the ministers who paid multibillion-naira bribes to be appointed to his government.

Mr Abubakar made this call in a post on X, against the backdrop of Alwan Hassan, an All Progressives Congress Presidential campaign council spokesperson, admitting that many rogue ministers in Mr Tinubu’s government paid billions to get appointments just to loot Nigeria’s treasury.

“Bola @officialABAT, your campaign spokesman has admitted that ministers paid billions in bribes to secure their appointments. You appointed them, so who received the money? Nigerians deserve names, not silence,” Mr Abubakar said.

Mr Abubakar, the African Democratic Congress’ 2027 presidential candidate, berated the Tinubu-led government as reckless for plunging Nigeria into an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis because he would not allow ministers he appointed to implement their budgets.

“Your government’s reckless decisions have driven the cost-of-living crisis. And when you withhold funds from ministries because you distrust your own ministers, Nigerians are left paying for a government that has abandoned them,” Mr Abubakar said.

The opposition candidate’s statement comes less than 24 hours after Mr Hassan, in an interview, described ministers as the “most criminal elements in government”, while defending Mr Tinubu’s decision to control government expenditure by not giving his ministers the budget to implement.

“Whatever it is that a budget should do in this country in the last three years, Asiwaju has done it by himself. Why do we need ministers? Why do we need budget given to ministers? A lot of ministers…” Mr Hassan said as he was interrupted by the interview anchor.

But Mr Hassan returned to the point he was making before the interview anchor interrupted him, saying, “The way Asiwaju is hands-on on the expenditures of our revenue is fantastic, and I love it. A lot of ministers pay billions and billions, and you know, to get themselves appointed, the first thing they think of is how to recoup that money.”

Bayo Onanuga, spokesperson for Mr Tinubu, could not be reached for comment, as he did not pick up calls seeking a response to Mr Abubakar’s criticisms.