DOCUMENT: Abia State Is Hemorrhaging Financially Through Deceit and Fraudulent Manipulations | #NwokeukwuMascot

 Opinion 

Abia State stands at a dangerous crossroads. While billions flow into its coffers every month, its citizens still wade through poverty, dilapidated roads, and abandoned public projects. Behind the glossy press releases and endless social media propaganda lies a painful truth: Abia is bleeding, not from lack of money, but from systemic deceit and institutional decay.

The recently published Abia State Government’s Third Quarter (Q3) 2025 Financial Report has once again exposed the administration’s growing pattern of deceit, manipulation, and deliberate distortion of financial data intended to mislead unsuspecting citizens and conceal the true state of the economy.

For many Abians, the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) framework remains one of the few credible instruments through which they can understand how their commonwealth is being managed. In a period when the cost of contracts, project expenditures, and fiscal decisions are treated as confidential matters, the SFTAS report serves as a mirror that reflects the contradictions and inconsistencies shaping Abia’s financial narrative.

In the first quarter of 2025, covering January to March, the state reported a total revenue of ₦86 billion, which included FAAC allocations, grants, receipts, and internally generated revenue (IGR). This translated to an average of ₦28 billion monthly. By the second quarter, from April to June, total revenue rose sharply to ₦114 billion, averaging ₦38 billion monthly. The figure drew significant public attention when the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, stated in Umuahia that Abia was receiving as much as ₦38 billion monthly and should be doing much more with such inflows.

Rather than clarify these figures and promote transparency, the state government went into denial. Officials issued several conflicting statements, claiming ₦15 billion, ₦21 billion, and ₦26 billion respectively as the state’s monthly FAAC receipts. These inconsistencies only deepened public suspicion of deliberate financial concealment and manipulation.

It was therefore unsurprising that in the third quarter report, the same government suddenly claimed that total revenue had dropped from ₦114 billion to ₦69 billion. This drastic and unrealistic decline came at a time when Nigeria’s FAAC allocations were at record highs of ₦1.9 trillion in July, ₦2.3 trillion in August, and ₦2.1 trillion in September. According to the Q3 report, Abia received ₦49 billion from FAAC and ₦18 billion in IGR within the period. Yet, a simple breakdown of official FAAC distributions raises serious doubts.

In July 2025, Abia State received ₦14.55 billion, while its Local Governments received ₦8.45 billion, making a total of ₦22.98 billion. In August, the state received ₦15.46 billion and the Local Governments ₦9.23 billion, bringing the total to ₦24.69 billion. These two months alone already amount to ₦47.67 billion, making it practically impossible for the entire third quarter to total only ₦49 billion, even before accounting for September’s allocation, which came from a national pool exceeding ₦2.1 trillion. The figures are not only inconsistent but also point to deliberate manipulation intended to obscure the truth about Abia’s finances.

Even more revealing is that the Q3 2026 report posted by the state government confirmed a total revenue of ₦91 billion for the same period, translating to an average of ₦30.3 billion monthly. The question that remains unanswered is simple: what does the Abia State Government do with ₦30 billion every month?

There are credible indications that the government, embarrassed by the revelation that Abia’s total monthly revenue is around ₦38 billion, deliberately removed the Local Government share of the FAAC from its calculations in order to understate the total revenue. This represents an act of financial misrepresentation that deserves to be investigated. The people of Abia have a right to know who manages the Local Government funds and how these funds are utilized.

While government officials trade figures, pensioners die waiting for arrears that may never come. Teachers and health workers struggle to survive, and communities continue to fix their own roads, schools, and clinics. The disconnect between government claims and the lived reality of the people has never been wider. How can a state that claims fiscal excellence still rank among the least developed in visible infrastructure? How long will Abians continue to watch in silence while their future is traded for political convenience and media image-making?

Meanwhile, BudgIT’s 2025 fiscal performance ranking placed Abia as the fourth best-performing state in Nigeria, claiming that 77 percent of its budget was spent on capital projects and that there had been a surge in internally generated revenue. However, this so-called growth is nothing more than a statistical illusion. The government merely reclassified school fees, hospital charges, and even students’ union dues as part of its IGR. Such creative accounting paints a deceptive picture of fiscal vibrancy and accountability.

If indeed 77 percent of the budget was devoted to capital projects, where are the tangible results? Abians can hardly point to any major infrastructure, new roads, bridges, schools, or hospitals that justify suchu enormous spending. The streets remain in disrepair, communities still rely on self-help for basic amenities, and public utilities continue to deteriorate.

The Government’s claim of allocating 15 percent of the budget to Health and 20 percent to Education also lacks credibility. Most secondary health institutions in the state are in deplorable condition, overrun by neglect, while many Primary Health Centres(PHC) are either federal or donor-funded projects that have been dubiously claimed as state achievements.

In the Education sector, the Q3 report stated that an additional ₦12.8 billion was spent on school rehabilitation, bringing total expenditure on public schools between January 2024 and September 2025 to ₦82 billion. Yet, there are no visible new schools, improved learning facilities, or upgraded classrooms to justify such colossal spending. Abians are no longer swayed by elaborate presentations or glossy agency rankings. They now judge governance by what they see and experience in their daily lives.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) report claimed that Abia had repaid ₦78 billion of inherited debt. However, no one seems to know who the beneficiaries of these repayments are. While other states have used similar sums to clear long-standing gratuities and pension arrears, Abia continues to neglect its retirees and owes contractors who executed projects years ago.

For comparison, Imo State cleared gratuities from 2005 to 2023 with ₦70 billion. Katsina State spent ₦24 billion, Zamfara ₦13.6 billion, Anambra ₦7 billion, and Bayelsa ₦12 billion. Yet Abia remains the only state in Nigeria that has not paid a single kobo in gratuities since 2003, despite allegedly spending ₦78 billion on debt repayment to unnamed entities and operating one of the largest state budgets in the country at ₦900 billion.

The recently approved ₦150 billion supplementary budget, which reportedly caused disagreements( Fight)in the House of Assembly over the distribution of the expected blood tonic , has only deepened public mistrust. Despite these enormous financial inflows, Abia has no iconic project, no signature infrastructure, and no visible progress to show. What is visible instead is a well-funded propaganda machine flooding the public space with exaggerated claims and half-truths.

Abia State is bleeding financially. It is drained not by a lack of funds but by deceit, misrepresentation, and reckless manipulation of public resources. The tragedy of Abia today is not a shortage of revenue but a collapse of truth and accountability. The state bleeds because dishonesty has replaced integrity, propaganda has replaced planning, and governance has become a theatre of figures without results.

While officials may continue to paint false pictures of progress, the people know better. They see the potholes that never get fixed, the hospitals without drugs, and the classrooms without roofs. They feel the pain of unpaid pensions and the despair of broken promises. Abians are wiser now. They are no longer deceived by slogans, doctored reports, or borrowed accolades from data agencies. They can see through the fog of propaganda and understand that transparency without accountability is a mirage.

Abia’s salvation will not come from glossy reports or social media campaigns. It will come when citizens begin to ask hard questions and demand honest answers. For now, Abia remains a state where figures grow while progress disappears, a painful irony that every Abian must confront.

Abia is not bleeding because it is poor. It is bleeding because its leaders have chosen deceit over honesty, propaganda over progress, and personal comfort over public good.

©️Ekwedike