Former Vice President and African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, has accused President Bola Tinubu of presiding over a spectacle of executive excess over the reported distribution of 2026 model luxury Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), each worth more than ₦150 million, to leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) youth wing.
The development follows a confirmation by the President’s wife, Oluremi Tinubu, that she donated Sports Utility Vehicles, reportedly Prados, to the National Youth Wing of the APC to support its grassroots mobilisation ahead of the 2027 elections.

Atiku, in a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, said it was a brazen insult to ask Nigerians to endure hardship while party loyalists receive vehicles worth a fortune. He demanded an immediate public explanation from President Tinubu and the Presidency on who is paying for the SUVs, and why such lavish political spending is taking place while ordinary families struggle to afford food and transport.
He said the gifts came at a time when millions of Nigerians are still waiting for meaningful relief from the cost of living crisis. According to him, the matter is not merely one of misplaced priorities but one of the most outlandish displays of executive recklessness in the country’s history.

On the First Lady’s role in the donation, Atiku said “The APC National Youth Leader says these vehicles were donated by First Lady Oluremi Tinubu. Nigerians deserve to know where the money came from to buy and distribute so many 2026 model SUVs, each worth more than ₦150 million, for political mobilisation. The First Lady holds no elected or executive office. She is only a domestic appendage of the office of President. Were these vehicles bought with her personal funds, donations or public resources? Who paid for them? What was the total cost? The Presidency must provide a clear account. Nigerians cannot be expected to accept a fleet of extraordinarily expensive vehicles for party loyalists without knowing who financed them.”

The ADC candidate recalled that APC women leaders had earlier reportedly received luxury vehicles, and that those gifts came on the eve of the abduction of schoolchildren in Oyo State. He said another lavish round of political giving was now taking place while Nigerians face hunger, insecurity and hardship.
Atiku said that while Nigerians continue to ask where the savings from subsidy removal have gone, the Presidency must explain how such costly gifts are being funded. If the vehicles were paid for privately, he said, the source of the funds should be disclosed. If public resources were used, the government must identify who authorised the spending and under what legal authority.
He added that the scale of the gifts raises grave questions about whether the nation’s collective patrimony is being diverted to buy political loyalty, stressing that Nigeria cannot be run as a captured state where wealth and influence serve the powerful while ordinary citizens are left to struggle.

The former Vice President also noted that the same youth leader who made the gifts public is reportedly travelling by private jet, an image he said stands in jarring contrast to the hardship facing ordinary Nigerians. He said the Presidency must stop treating questions about wealth and spending as an inconvenience.
Atiku further said the culture of privilege is not confined to party officials but reaches the household of the President. He noted that the President’s son, Mr Seyi Tinubu, has been pictured in widely circulated images wearing a Richard Mille RM 67-02 Sébastien Ogier, a timepiece that sells for close to half a million dollars, while the same government asks ordinary Nigerians to endure hardship, tighten their belts and wait patiently for relief that never seems to arrive.