The ₦110 Billion Audacity of Greed
The ₦110 Billion
Audacity of Greed
A Federal High Court has confirmed what suffering Nigerians already knew: while citizens were told to endure, Abuja's political class was busy voting itself bulletproof luxury in one of the most brazen acts of self-dealing in Nigerian legislative history.
For over two years, Nigerians were told to endure. The removal of the fuel subsidy in 2023 was sold as bitter but necessary medicine — a hard sacrifice that would save the nation, rebuild its infrastructure, and restore fiscal dignity to a broken economy. Citizens were asked to tighten their belts, absorb record-breaking inflation, and watch the naira collapse to historic lows. Ordinary families cut meals. Transporters hiked fares. Hospitals turned away patients who could no longer afford drugs.
While all of that was happening, the National Assembly was shopping for bulletproof SUVs.
On Wednesday, May 6, 2026, Justice Yellim Bogoro of the Federal High Court in Lagos delivered a judgment that stripped away the last pretense of legality from one of the most outrageous acts of legislative self-enrichment this country has witnessed. In Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1606/2023, filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the court declared the National Assembly's ₦110 billion vehicle procurement and support allowance schemes unlawful, arbitrary, and a direct breach of the public trust.
What the Court Actually Said
SERAP filed the suit in August 2023 after it emerged that the legislature had embedded these allocations inside the Supplementary Appropriation Act 2022 — an act signed into law in 2023 by President Tinubu — approving ₦40 billion for 465 vehicles for lawmakers and ₦70 billion in blanket "support allowances" for incoming members. The organisation argued this violated Section 57(4) of the Public Procurement Act 2007, Paragraph 1 of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution on the Code of Conduct for Public Officers, and the oath of office under the Seventh Schedule.
The National Assembly's defence was instructive in its arrogance. Their legal team argued that the spending was lawful, properly appropriated, and that the matter had become "academic" because the funds had already been disbursed. They also challenged SERAP's legal standing to sue. Justice Bogoro rejected every one of these arguments.
Looking at the magnitude of the expenditure, coupled with the absence of demonstrable due process, leads me to conclude that the procurement is arbitrary, disproportionate and inconsistent with statutory procurement standards.
— Justice Yellim Bogoro, Federal High Court Lagos, May 6, 2026
The allocation of ₦110 billion for the benefit of lawmakers undermines the fiduciary duty owed to the Nigerian people. Public office must not be used for personal enrichment. Public officers must act within constitutional boundaries and in good faith. I hold that the conduct complained of is inconsistent with the oath of office.
— Justice Yellim Bogoro, ibid.
The court took explicit judicial notice of Nigeria's economic conditions — a rare and deliberate signal. It acknowledged the widespread financial hardship facing citizens and ruled that approving ₦110 billion in lawmakers' benefits against that backdrop "demonstrates a failure to prioritise national interest." It found that the arrangement amounted to self-dealing and conflict of interest, as the very officials who approved the expenditure were its direct beneficiaries.
They approved their own luxury. They spent the money. Then they told the court the matter was "academic." Justice Bogoro disagreed.
The Lie of Necessity
Let us not rush past the most insulting dimension of this scheme: the pretense that it was necessary. Did the senators not have transport before May 2023? Did House members walk to Eagle Square for their inauguration? How have 469 legislators commuted to the National Assembly complex every sitting day since 2023 if they desperately needed ₦40 billion in new vehicles?
The answer, of course, is that they already have official vehicles. They already receive statutory transport allowances set by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission. According to RMAFC's own published figures, each senator already earns over ₦1 million monthly in salary and allowances — a package that includes motor vehicle fuelling, domestic staff, entertainment, utilities, wardrobe, and constituency allowances — plus a separate vehicle loan facility, furniture allowance, and a severance gratuity at the end of tenure. A senator interviewed by the BBC Hausa Service disclosed that his total monthly take-home was ₦21 million — far above the official RMAFC line. The ₦110 billion was not a response to transportation need. It was an opportunity: public money available, public attention elsewhere, and the majority needed to approve it sitting right there in the chamber.
- Monthly package per senator: ₦1,063,860 — covering basic salary, fuelling, domestic staff, entertainment, utilities, wardrobe, constituency allowance, and more
- Annual package per senator: ₦12.72 million (official RMAFC figure); actual disclosures by lawmakers suggest significantly more
- Vehicle allowance: Already provided as a separate RMAFC facility (optional loan repaid before leaving office)
- Furniture allowance: ₦6.08 million paid once per tenure
- Severance gratuity: ₦6.08 million at end of tenure
- Total government expenditure on 109 senators annually: ₦1.4 billion — before the ₦110 billion claim
Source: RMAFC official statement, August 2024; Punch Newspapers
The Subsidy Betrayal
The timing of this scheme cannot be separated from its moral weight. The ₦110 billion allocation was embedded in the same Supplementary Appropriation Act 2022 signed in 2023 — the same legislative season in which the National Assembly rubber-stamped the removal of the petrol subsidy and approved ₦500 billion to cushion its effects on ordinary Nigerians. While citizens waited for that cushion — which for most never arrived in any meaningful form — their representatives quietly allocated nearly a quarter of that same figure to themselves.
This is the obscene arithmetic of the Tinubu era's opening chapter: ₦500 billion for the people's pain, ₦110 billion for the lawmakers' comfort. And the ₦500 billion is still being debated. The ₦110 billion was apparently already spent.
You cannot tax a starving population to finance a billionaire lifestyle for the people's elected representatives.
What the Court Cannot Do Alone
This judgment is historic. SERAP and Justice Bogoro have performed a genuine public service by putting on the record, in binding legal language, what Nigerians already knew in their bones: that this was theft of mandate, dressed in appropriation law. The court has declared the schemes unlawful. It has directed Akpabio and Abbas to ensure that all future National Assembly procurement and expenditure strictly comply with due process, transparency, accountability, and value-for-money principles.
But a court order is paper. Its power depends entirely on enforcement, and enforcement in Nigeria depends on political will. The National Assembly has already demonstrated that it considers itself above institutional accountability — their legal team literally argued that spending the money made the challenge academic. There is every possibility that Akpabio and Abbas will smile at this ruling, quietly instruct their legal team to file an appeal, and continue operating exactly as they have.
The civil society response has been correct. The judicial decision has been correct. What remains incomplete is the popular accountability that these institutions cannot substitute for. Civil society won in court; it still needs to win in the streets, in the media, and ultimately at the ballot box.
- Full compliance with the court order — not an appeal strategy, not a delay. Akpabio and Abbas must acknowledge the judgment publicly and commit to the transparency standards the court has ordered.
- A forensic audit of the ₦110 billion — where did the ₦70 billion in "support allowances" go? To whose accounts? Under what process? Nigerians deserve a detailed accounting, not a press release.
- Immediate halt to any ongoing disbursements — the National Assembly argued funds were already spent. If any portion remains unspent, it must be halted and returned.
- Legislative reform of the self-appropriation loophole — lawmakers should not be constitutionally permitted to vote on expenditures that directly benefit themselves without independent oversight and RMAFC sign-off.
- Voter memory in 2027 — every Senator and House member who voted for this allocation is on record. Their constituencies should know their names, their votes, and this judgment.
The Line in the Sand
There is a phrase that Nigerian governance has effectively made meaningless through repetition: public office is a public trust. It appears in the Constitution. It appears in oaths. It appeared three times in Justice Bogoro's judgment. And yet the very people who swore that oath in the seventh schedule to the Constitution voted themselves ₦305 million per vehicle while their constituents could not afford a bag of rice.
This is not about party. The 10th National Assembly includes members from the ruling APC, the PDP, the Labour Party, and others. They voted for this together. Political tribalism on this issue is a luxury Nigerians cannot afford. The enemy of accountability is not the opposition party — it is the entire culture of legislative impunity that has made Abuja a private club for self-enrichment, funded by the commonwealth of a nation in crisis.
The court has spoken. The facts are on record. The ₦110 billion was unlawful, self-serving, and a betrayal of every Nigerian who sacrificed for a "windfall" that was redirected to bulletproof vehicles. Compliance is not optional. The commonwealth belongs to Nigeria — not to Abuja. And if those in Abuja need reminding of that fact, 2027 is coming.
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