The letter, dated October 18, 2026, and addressed to Senator Abdulaziz Yari, Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, concerns preparations for the presidential campaign rally scheduled to take place in Kaduna on October 24.
According to the document, the rally is expected to be a major political mobilisation exercise, described as a demonstration of “renewed hope, political strength, popular support” and organisational capacity ahead of the 2027 elections.
However, the figure contained in the letter has immediately raised questions among Nigerians, particularly because of its extraordinary size.
₦2.3 trillion for one campaign event is an enormous figure.
For perspective, Kaduna State's entire approved 2026 budget is approximately ₦985.9 billion, according to the Kaduna State Government and independent reporting on the state's appropriation. Governor Uba Sani signed the budget into law in December 2025, with about 70.9 percent, or ₦698.9 billion, allocated to capital expenditure.
That means the ₦2.3 trillion figure stated in the letter is more than twice the entire annual budget of Kaduna State.
The comparison becomes even more striking when placed against Nigeria's federal budget. President Bola Tinubu signed the 2026 Appropriation Act providing for aggregate expenditure of approximately ₦68.32 trillion. The federal budget includes ₦15.8 trillion for debt service, ₦15.4 trillion for recurrent expenditure and about ₦32.2 trillion for capital expenditure.
Consequently, the alleged ₦2.3 trillion allocation represents roughly 3.4 percent of Nigeria's entire 2026 federal budget.
This is why the document has generated such intense reactions.
The central question is not simply whether a political party can mobilise substantial resources for a campaign. Political campaigns require logistics, transportation, security, communication, accommodation, media, venue preparation and grassroots mobilisation. The APC has also confirmed that Kaduna will host the official flag-off of its nationwide presidential campaign on October 24, with expectations of a massive turnout.
The fundamental issue is therefore what exactly the ₦2.3 trillion represents.
Is the figure genuinely for the Kaduna rally alone? Does it include nationwide campaign logistics? Does “budgeted and released” mean that the money has already been transferred and is available for expenditure? Who provided the funds? Through which institutions or accounts? And what procurement, contracting and expenditure records exist to support the figure?
These questions deserve clear answers.
It is also important not to confuse the contents of the letter with independently verified evidence of actual expenditure. The document establishes that such a figure is stated in the letter, but further documentation would be necessary to establish that ₦2.3 trillion was actually spent on the rally.
Nevertheless, the scale of the figure makes the matter worthy of public scrutiny.
Nigeria is currently operating under significant fiscal pressure. The country's 2026 budget includes substantial debt-servicing obligations, while the government continues to emphasise fiscal discipline and more efficient public spending.
Against that backdrop, Nigerians are justified in asking whether political mobilisation is receiving financial commitments that appear disproportionate to the resources available for public services.
For critics of the APC administration, the controversy reinforces their broader argument that public resources are being prioritised for politics at a time when citizens continue to demand improvements in education, healthcare, infrastructure, employment and living standards.
But whether the ₦2.3 trillion figure ultimately proves to be an accurate expenditure, a broader campaign budget, an error in the letter, or something else entirely remains a question for the relevant authorities and the APC campaign council to answer.
Until that clarification is provided, one question remains unavoidable: how can ₦2.3 trillion be budgeted and released for a single campaign flag-off when the entire annual budget of Kaduna State is less than ₦1 trillion?
The Nigerian public deserves a transparent explanation.
The letter raises a serious financial question, but one important distinction should be preserved: the document says ₦2.3 trillion was “budgeted and released towards the successful execution” of the rally; it does not by itself prove that ₦2.3 trillion was actually spent on the rally. The claim therefore warrants clarification and documentary evidence.*
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