The African Democratic Congress (ADC) said President Bola Tinubu’s obsession for re-election in 2027 is causing incalculable damage to governance.
ADC in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the president has not implemented any national budget 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,” the party stated.
According to the ADC, available reports indicate that while the 2024 budget was rolled over to 2025, as at 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 party described government’s defense that it is a “deliberate strategy” and “transition cost” to ensure that multi-year capital projects were completed, as absurd.
“This is a blatant falsehood that cannot hold up to any scrutiny,” it added.
ADC stated that only 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,” the party said.
It noted that capital budget implementation for the Ministry of Power stands at only 3.6%, that of Communications Technology at 8.9%, while Education and Health stand at 23.5% and 32.5% respectively.
“Certainly, no serious government would leave these sectors, which are crucial to national human capital development, largely unfunded while select government officials continue to live in obscene opulence in the midst of unprecedented poverty and human misery,” ADC stated.
The party noted the only ministry that has outperformed its budget, up to 113.45%, is the Ministry of Defence, and said it is due to emergency funding through the inscrutable Service-Wide Vote.
“Yet, rather than abate, insecurity has continued to spread across the country,” it said, adding that recent reports indicate that up to 500 Nigerians might have been killed by terrorists in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and Kebbi this month.
ADC said Tinubu’s government has been boasting of historic revenue collection and unprecedented foreign reserve balances, but noted that it has borrowed more than any other government in Nigerian 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?” the party asked.
ADC stated that since Tinubu was sworn in, 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, and said such happens when a government is distracted.
The party said President Tinubu’s government has proven that everything is about politics and power for its own sake, and blamed this on growing insecurity in the country.
“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,” it stated.
