Our Reporter, Abuja
A coalition of Nigerian civil society organisations has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly (NASS) of what it described as “fiscal rascality” and grave constitutional breaches following the repeal and re-enactment of the 2024 and 2025 Appropriation Acts.
In a statement issued on Tuesday under the banner Nigerian Civil Society Economy Action, the groups faulted what they called opaque, unconstitutional and unlawful handling of the federal budgeting process, warning that the actions undermine fiscal responsibility and the rule of law.
“We express grave concern over the recent constitutional breaches in the repeal and re-enactment of the 2024 and 2025 Appropriation Acts carried out by a collaboration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly,” the statement said.
The organisations also criticised the failure of budget authorities to make budget documents publicly available, noting that “eighteen days after the presentation of the federal executive budget, the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) and the NASS have failed, refused and neglected to upload same to their websites.”
According to the coalition, Nigerians have been excluded from the budgeting process, as neither the repealed nor re-enacted appropriation bills have been published on any electronic portal. “There was no opportunity for popular participation in the consideration and re-enactment of these Acts,” the groups said.
Raising constitutional concerns, the civil society organisations cited Sections 80 and 81 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which require legislative approval before public expenditure is incurred. They stressed that “expenditure must be based on prior legislative approval and not legislative endorsement of already incurred expenditure.”
The statement recalled that the 2024 Appropriation Act was due to expire on December 31, 2024, but was controversially extended by the National Assembly to June 2025 and later December 2025. Despite this extension, the groups alleged that the executive failed to implement the budget as passed.
“Now that the extended life has ended, the President sought to repeal and re-enact the Act increasing the total budget size from ₦35.05 trillion to ₦43.56 trillion,” the statement noted. The coalition described this as “a legal and constitutional impossibility.”
“It is an affront to the fiscal provisions of the Constitution for the President to spend extra ₦8 trillion in public funds without prior legislative approval,” the organisations said, adding that Nigeria was “not operating under any declared fiscal emergency.”
They further criticised the legislature, describing NASS as a “supine rubber stamp” for approving spending after the fact.
The groups also rejected claims by the National Assembly that the repeal and re-enactment were meant to align Nigeria’s budgeting process with global best practices.
“This position of NASS cannot be supported by Nigerian fiscal laws and policies or any international best practice,” the statement said, describing the process instead as “a mismanagement and gross abuse of due process and our fiscal laws.”
On transparency, the coalition cited Section 48(1) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which mandates full disclosure and wide publication of fiscal decisions.
“The refusal to make public the 2026 Appropriation Bill or the 2024 and 2025 Appropriation Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bills… are in gross violation of this provision,” the groups said, stressing that “citizens cannot engage budget bills that they have not seen or have access to.”
The statement also lamented the disappearance of simplified “citizens’ budgets,” noting that “in the past, the BOF produced citizens budgets… while the current BOF simply refuses to make available the basic budget document.”
The organisations issued a list of demands, including that the National Assembly “ensure that there is no expenditure without appropriation,” warning that unbudgeted spending “is an impeachable offence.”
They also demanded “an unconditional guarantee by the President to abide by constitutional stipulations of spending only what has been appropriated.”
Other demands include the immediate publication of the 2026 budget estimates and the re-enacted 2024 and 2025 appropriation laws on the websites of both the BOF and NASS, as well as “a commitment to fiscal transparency… and a guarantee of popular participation in the consideration and approval of all fiscal laws and policies.”
The statement was jointly signed by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), PRIMORG, PLSI, and BudgIT.
