The African Democratic Congress has faulted the President Bola Tinubu-led Federal Government over what it called budget confusion, poor project implementation, and frequent policy reversals.
In a statement today, the ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the government’s preoccupation with re-election politics, at the expense of effective governance, has caused unprecedented damage to the country.
Since 2024, Nigeria’s budget system has been imbalanced, with the 2025 and 2026 budgets running concurrently.
In response, the ADC stated that this situation is negatively affecting the performance of ministries and government agencies.
The statement read, “The ADC has noted recent reports that signify utter confusion and a historic level of incompetence in the Tinubu administration’s implementation of national budgets since 2024. This is the first time in Nigerian history that any government would be running three budgets at the same time while implementing none.
“Available reports indicate that while the 2024 budget was rolled over to 2025, as of the third quarter of 2025, only 17.7% of the capital budget had been released, while overall implementation hovered at less than 30%, even as internal disbursements continued to lag.
“The government has argued that this absurdity is a ‘deliberate strategy’ and ‘transition cost’ to ensure that multi-year capital projects are completed. This is a blatant falsehood that cannot hold up to any scrutiny.
“Even as we speak, 30% of the 2025 budget is billed to run from February 2026 to November 30, 2026, while the remaining 70% is simply rolled over to the 2026 budget, which is still being debated at the National Assembly three months into the year.
“This situation becomes even more alarming when we recall that President Tinubu promised last year that all capital components of the 2024 and 2025 budgets would be concluded by March 31, 2026, less than a month away, knowing quite well that this is not possible.
As of today, capital budget implementation for the Ministry of Power stands at a mere 3.6%, that of Communications Technology at 8.9%, while Education and Health stand at 23.5% and 32.5% respectively.”
ADC stated that no responsible government would leave sectors vital to national human capital development largely unfunded while certain government officials continue to live in excessive luxury amid widespread poverty and human suffering.
It continued, “It is noteworthy that the only ministry that has outperformed its budget, up to 113.45%, is the Ministry of Defence, largely due to emergency funding through the inscrutable Service-Wide Vote.
“Yet, rather than abate, insecurity has continued to spread across the country. Recent reports indicate that in this month of Ramadan alone, up to 500 Nigerians may have been killed by terrorists in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and Kebbi.
“The government has continued to boast of historic revenue collection and unprecedented foreign reserve balances. This government has borrowed more aggressively than any other government in the country’s history.
“Yet, budgets remain unimplemented, and contractors remain unpaid. This is the reason Nigerians are suffering like never before and asking the most important questions: What is this government doing with all the money that accrues from all the loans, all the revenues, and all the increased taxes? Why are we worse off today than we were three years ago?
“Since this government came on board, analysts have identified at least seven appointments and several policy decisions that the government has announced and reversed either almost immediately or after public uproar. This is what happens when a government is distracted.
“The Tinubu government has proven that, to them, everything is about politics and power for its own sake. This is why Nigerians are being slaughtered at an industrial scale across the country while the government feasts. This is why, despite all the propaganda of having performed wonders, Nigeria still holds the ignoble position of having the highest number of people in the world living in extreme poverty, with at least six out of every ten Nigerians unable to feed themselves.”
