The African Democratic Congress has taken aim at President Bola Tinubu’s administration, accusing it of running the country’s finances into the ground through what the party described as budget confusion, shoddy project delivery, and a troubling habit of reversing its own policies.
Speaking through a statement on Thursday, March 5, the ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the administration has been so consumed by re-election politics that it has neglected actual governance, leaving the country worse off than ever.
According to the ADC, Nigeria’s budget framework has been in disarray since 2024, with the 2025 and 2026 fiscal plans now overlapping in ways the country has never experienced.
It warned that this overlap is crippling the ability of ministries and agencies to function properly.
“The ADC has noted recent reports that signify utter confusion and a historic level of incompetence in the Tinubu administration’s implementation of national budgets 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 statement read.
“Available reports indicate that while the 2024 budget was rolled over to 2025, as of 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 dismissed the government’s defense of the situation outright.
“The government has argued that this absurdity is a ‘deliberate strategy’ and ‘transition cost’ to ensure that multi-year capital projects are completed. This is a blatant falsehood that cannot hold up to any scrutiny,” the ADC said.
“Even as we speak, 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.”
The party also called out President Tinubu for making promises it said he knew he could not keep.
“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.
“As of today, capital budget implementation for the Ministry of Power stands at a mere 3.6%, that of Communications Technology at 8.9%, while Education and Health stand at 23.5% and 32.5% respectively.”
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The ADC said no serious government would starve sectors critical to national development of funding while allowing officials to live lavishly as ordinary Nigerians struggle with poverty.
On security spending, the party noted a glaring contradiction.
“It is noteworthy that the only ministry that has outperformed its budget, up to 113.45%, is the Ministry of Defence, largely due to emergency funding through the inscrutable Service-Wide Vote,” it said.
“Yet, rather than abate, insecurity has continued to spread across the country. Recent reports indicate that in this month of Ramadan alone, up to 500 Nigerians may have been killed by terrorists in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and Kebbi.”
The party questioned where the nation’s money is going, given the government’s own claims of record earnings.
“The government has continued to boast of historic revenue collection and unprecedented foreign reserve balances. This government has borrowed more aggressively than any other government in the country’s 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 ADC also pointed to a pattern of indecision, noting that analysts have tracked at least seven appointments and multiple policy decisions that were announced only to be walked back shortly after.
“Since this government came on board, 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. This is what happens when a government is distracted,” the statement said.
The party wrapped up with a blistering assessment of the administration’s priorities.
“The Tinubu government has proven that, to them, everything is about politics and power for its own sake. This is why Nigerians are being slaughtered at an industrial scale across the country while the government feasts.
“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.”