The question Atiku must answer — by Okoi Obono-obla

On 7 November 2026, while addressing a campaign rally in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu pointedly asked Atiku Abubakar to explain how he got the money to build the American University of Nigeria (AUN) while he was still in office as Vice President.

It was a simple question. It deserves a straight answer.

Atiku’s reply was that he started ABTI Academy in 1993. But ABTI Academy is a different entity from AUN. That reply does not answer the question. It avoids it.

Let us be precise, because precision is what this debate has lacked.

The man and his record

Atiku Abubakar served in the Nigeria Customs Service and left in 1989 as a Deputy Director. He was sworn in as Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 29 May 1999, and served until 2007.

He was not a poor man when he entered office. He says so himself. He has spoken of hundreds of millions of dollars in assets declared in 1999. Good. That makes the question even more important: if he was already wealthy, let him show us the record.

The Code of Conduct provisions of the Constitution require a public officer, on assuming office, to submit a written declaration of his assets to the Code of Conduct Bureau. Paragraph 11(1), Part I of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution provides that every public officer shall, within three months after the coming into force of the Code of Conduct or immediately after taking office, submit a written declaration of all his properties, assets and liabilities.

Did Atiku Abubakar include the American University of Nigeria, Yola, among his assets in 1999?

If he contends that he built the university before becoming Vice President, he should publish the asset declaration form he completed in 1999. Let him also tell us when he obtained approval or a licence from the National Universities Commission (NUC), and where the money used to build the university came from.

These are not insults. They are questions of public accountability.

ABTI Academy is not AUN

Atiku’s defence rests on a sleight of hand: the conflation of ABTI Academy with the American University of Nigeria.

ABTI Academy was a primary and secondary school, now known as AUN Academy. It is not the same institution as the American University of Nigeria.

Atiku says he laid the foundation for ABTI Academy in 1993, six years before he became Vice President. Let us, for the sake of argument, accept that claim, although AUN’s own history has at times dated ABTI Academy to 2002.

Even if we accept 1993, it does not settle the matter. The university has its own separate timeline, and that timeline is damning to Atiku’s defence.

According to AUN’s own history:

2003: The university was licensed as ABTI University
October 2004: Construction commenced
2005: The first students were admitted
2007: It adopted its present name, the American University of Nigeria
2008: Its programmes were accredited by the NUC

Every decisive step in the creation of the university, licensing, construction, and opening, took place while Atiku was Vice President, in charge of the economy.

Atiku does not strictly claim that ABTI Academy is AUN. His argument is that ABTI Academy grew into AUN. But institutions do not grow by magic. They grow by money, land, licences, construction, staffing, and accreditation. Who provided those things, and when?

A primary school in 1993 does not explain a university licensed in 2003 and built from 2004.

The burden is on Atiku

President Tinubu’s question in Port Harcourt was not about whether Atiku had an interest in education before 1999. Nobody disputes that. The question was about the university.
“Ask him (Atiku) how he built a university while in office as Vice-President, in charge of our economy. Who built the university for him? It’s your money. It’s your effort.”
Atiku cannot answer a question about a university licensed in 2003 by pointing to a school he says he founded in 1993.

If the university was his private investment, let him produce the paper trail. Publish the 1999 asset declaration. Produce the NUC licence and the date it was granted. Show the source of funds for the construction that began in October 2004.

If he cannot, Nigerians are entitled to draw their own conclusions.

This is not about hatred for education. A university in Yola is a good thing. The question is not whether the university should exist. The question is how it was funded, and whether public office was used to build a private empire.

A man who seeks to lead Nigeria in 2027 cannot run away from the record of his years in power from 1999 to 2007. He cannot ask Nigerians to trust him with the future while refusing to account for the past.

Atiku Abubakar must answer: where did the money come from?

Until he does, President Tinubu’s question will remain unanswered, and it will continue to hang over this campaign.