Our Reporter, Abuja
Leading presidential aspirant of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Mr Peter Obi, on Monday raised critical questions over what he described as entrenched fiscal recklessness by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration warning that Nigeria is drifting deeper into budgetary opacity and poor public finance management.
Obi raised concerns ahead of reports that the Senate may approve the 2026 national budget on March 17, questioning which budget the country is effectively operating.
“With the announcement that the Nigerian Senate is likely to approve the 2026 National Budget on March 17, every Nigerian is asking an important question: which budget will Nigeria use this year?” Obi said in a statement.
He noted that Nigeria has, in recent years, operated multiple budgets simultaneously, a practice he said has no precedent in serious fiscal governance.
According to Obi, President Tinubu inherited a legally approved N21.83 trillion 2023 budget but soon after assumed office presented a N2.17 trillion supplementary budget, which he said prioritised benefits for public office holders while Nigerians were grappling with harsh economic reforms.
“Instead of restoring fiscal discipline, the President repeatedly expanded the 2023 budget without a clearly defined end date,” he stated.
The former Anambra State governor said the trend continued with the passage of a N35.06 trillion budget for 2024 and a N54.99 trillion budget for 2025, bringing total appropriations under the Tinubu administration to over N114 trillion in less than three years.
“Yet, the government has failed to achieve even fifty per cent budget implementation, exposing a profound crisis of budget credibility,” Obi said.
He described as alarming the situation where, until mid-2025, Nigeria was effectively operating three overlapping budgets without clear legal or fiscal guidance on their timelines.
“No serious country manages its budgets or fiscal operations in such a manner,” he said.
Obi also criticised the government’s decision to repeal and re-enact the 2024 and 2025 budgets with extended implementation periods, saying Nigerians have not been given access to the revised documents.
“Nigerians have not seen these re-enacted budgets, and there is no public information regarding the specific capital projects included or their associated costs. This is not reform; it represents fiscal obscurity elevated to the level of state policy,” he said.
On transparency, Obi accused the Federal Government of deliberately undermining public scrutiny by discontinuing the publication of treasury reports on the OpenTreasury.gov.ng portal.
“The Federal Government has stopped publishing treasury reports on the OpenTreasury.gov.ng portal, dismantling a vital transparency framework inherited from the previous administration,” he said, adding that no budget implementation report was released in 2025.
Obi warned that the proposed 2026 budget, which he said still lacks critical details, suggests that the administration has no intention of addressing structural weaknesses in Nigeria’s public finance system.
“No nation can operate with such recklessness and succeed,” he said.
He called for an urgent return to the January–December budget cycle, arguing that it would improve planning, tracking, transparency and accountability, while supporting sustainable growth and development.
