ADC faults 2026 budget

The African Democratic Congress has described the 2026 Budget as a document dangerously scant on detail, and built on a foundation of quicksand.

The opposition party made the submission in its critique of the budget in a statement it called a preliminary review of the 2026 Budget.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had last Friday presented the N58.18 trillion 2026 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly.

Under the proposal, defence and security will receive N5.41tn, ahead of infrastructure, education and health.

The opposition party, in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, accused the federal government of foisting fiscal chaos on the people by trying desperately to implement more than four budgets simultaneously.

The party further argued that fixing crude oil price at the benchmark of $64 per barrel in a season of price volatility with N34tn revenue projections is a tall dream, totally disconnected from reality.

The ADC further noted that ” a budget that plans to generate N34tn in revenue while borrowing N24tn is an admission of fiscal insolvency.”

The statement read: ” After a careful review of the 2026 Budget Proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday, December 19 2025, the ADC Team of Economists concludes as follows:

“Although it was presented as a ‘Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity,’ what was presented was only a consolidation of the fiscal recklessness and renewed wishful thinking that have become the hallmark of the Tinubu administration. If approved, the only thing this budget is capable of sharing is more debts and greater misery in the years ahead.

“The 2026 budget proposal only copies the templates of the failed, unimplemented and perhaps, unimplementable 2024 and 2025 budgets and will most likely end up in the same way, with the bulk of its implementation pushed to another year.

“We are witnessing a government that attempts to build a house on quicksand, presenting a new fiscal framework at a time when the 2025 budget has only just been repealed and reenacted in a display of unprecedented fiscal chaos and administrative incompetence.

“Truth is, Nigeria is caught in a fiscal mess. But rather than confront the problems, the Tinubu administration has continued to kick the can down the streets, believing that they can continue to hide the yawning cracks under mountains of unsustainable debts that mortgage the future generation, while they continue to indulge in financial profligacy.

“This administration fails to grasp a fundamental economic truth: no amount of monetary tinkering or central bank intervention can rescue an economy if the government refuses to embrace fiscal discipline and budget credibility. What we have seen under this Tinubu APC administration is a chaotic attempt to implement more than four budgets simultaneously because it lacks the basic competence to close out previous cycles and adhere to its own timelines.

“Governments may extend the budget implementation period or manage multiple supplementary budgets, but operating three or more national budgets simultaneously is President Tinubu’s original contribution to fiscal chaos. It has never happened before in this country.

“Overall, what is most evident is the administration’s penchant for turning fiscal planning into a hollow ritual and political ceremonies that mock the suffering of the Nigerian people. While revenues were pushed to N20tn in 2024—a figure driven more by the pains of currency devaluation than by genuine economic productivity—the government had the audacity to double its projections to N40tn for 2025 and even raised it to N58.57tn in 2026. This is not vision; it is fantasy.

“The 2026 budget, which remains dangerously scant on detail, embarks on yet another unsustainable expansion built on a foundation of quicksand. In an era where oil projections are weakening and global prices are dipping as tensions in Europe show signs of cooling, the Federal Government has inexplicably set a benchmark of $64 per barrel. Instead of adopting a conservative posture to shield the nation from global volatility, they chase a N34tn revenue target that is totally disconnected from reality, especially now that the artificial “bounce” provided by the devaluation of the Naira has fully evaporated. We wonder if this government ever considers alternative scenarios, other than the one that favours their mindset.

“Perhaps most terrifying is the sheer scale of the deficit and what it reveals about this government’s lack of concern for the next generation. This administration behaves as if after them, there would be no Nigeria anymore. A budget that plans to generate N34tn in revenue while borrowing N24tn is an admission of fiscal insolvency. In no sane or functional fiscal system would a deficit-to-revenue ratio of 70% be considered acceptable or even be contemplated at all.

“The document presented before the National Assembly on December 19 is a debt trap masquerading as a budget. The government claims it will spend N25.68tn on capital expenditure, yet with a projected deficit of N23.85tn, it is clear that almost every single bridge, road, or project is being funded by high-interest debts. Even with a transparent capital plan in place, this, on its own, calls for concern. But it is even more alarming when the government borrows mindlessly to fund opaque and often frivolous expenditures. It is one thing to squander current revenues on the excesses of the state, but it is an unpardonable sin to raise massive debts to fund reckless spending, effectively burying our children under a mountain of debt obligations before they even enter the workforce.

“The fundamentals of this 2026 budget document betray a total abandonment of revenue credibility and deficit management. The consequences of this incompetence are already staring us in the face. Driven by the twin engines of devaluation and surging borrowing, Nigeria’s debt servicing costs have exploded from N12.63tn in 2024 to a projected and staggering N15.52tn in 2026. There is no fiscal doctrine on earth that justifies a path of high deficits paired with such astronomical servicing costs.

“This administration has hit a wall, and it is clear that they are blinded by their own propaganda. The Federal Government of Nigeria is in desperate need of a new pair of eyes and a radical departure from this path of ruin to rebuild a fiscal structure that serves the people rather than just the creditors.”