Following the announcement that the Nigerian Senate is “likely to approve” the 2026 National Budget on 17 March, former Governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, has reacted by saying, Nigerians are asking one “important” question, “which budget will Nigeria use this year? Will it be the budgets for 2023, 2024, 2025, or 2026, or some combination of all these years?”
Via X, Obi described it as “fiscal recklessness” and said, “It is worth noting that as of last year, in our government, implementation of budget items from the 2023, 2024, and 2025 budgets was in a unique approach to budgeting, which continues to perpetuate a trend of fiscal recklessness.”
The 2023 Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), said, a “legally” signed budget of 2023 of “N21.83 trillion” was inherited by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu; and “few” months after taking over Aso Villa, the President presented a “N2.17 trillion” supplementary budget that ignited criticisms across the country for “prioritising benefits for public office holders at a time when Nigerians were enduring painful economic reforms without a credible social protection framework”.
Obi continued: “The pattern persisted with the passage of a N35.06 trillion budget for 2024 and a N54.99 trillion budget for 2025. In less than three years, President Tinubu has exercised appropriation powers over more than N114 trillion in public spending.
“Yet, the government has failed to achieve even fifty per cent budget implementation, exposing a profound crisis of budget credibility.
“No serious country manages its budgets or fiscal operations in such a manner.”
Despite the absence of “critical details”, the proposed 2026 Budget “indicates that the administration has no intention of addressing the structural weaknesses at the core of Nigeria’s public finance system”, Obi opined.
He also expressed disgust at the “lack of transparency”, which he said is “not accidental”, adding, “it reflects a deliberate pattern of undermining public scrutiny and debate”.
Also, Obi, who is a member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a Coalition Party for the 2027 General Elections, did not hesitate to call out the Federal Government for stopping to publish treasury reports on its official portal.
He said, the current government has successfully “dismantled a vital transparency framework inherited from the previous administration.”
Obi, a once member of the Labour Party (LP), suggested, every “effort” must be made to “quickly” bring Nigeria back to the “January-December budget cycle that was inherited and mismanaged by the current government”, saying, “no nation can operate with such recklessness and succeed”.
