The Democratic and Leadership Alliance has criticised the National Assembly’s decision to extend the implementation of the capital component of the 2025 budget to December 31, 2026.
The Senate and House of Representatives approved the extension on Tuesday, allowing Ministries, Departments and Agencies more time to implement capital projects provided for under the 2025 Appropriation Act.
The latest move marks the fourth extension of the deadline for implementing the capital aspect of the budget, which was originally expected to end on September 30, 2026.
Reacting to the development in a statement on Wednesday, the Head of Media and Publicity of the DLA National Campaign Council, Dr Tosin Odeyemi, described the repeated extensions as an indication of what the party considers a deteriorating fiscal and economic situation.
Odeyemi said the party was also worried that the 2024 budget had not been fully funded, while the implementation of the 2026 budget was experiencing difficulties.
“We are more concerned that this is the fourth time the implementation of this same budget has been extended and with the latest one, it shows that the Bola Tinubu-led administration has continued to fail Nigerians in even the most basic metric of governance,” he said.
According to him, the latest extension could create further complications for budget execution and result in outstanding capital expenditure being carried over.
“The looming fiscal and economic crisis this administration is inviting shows that over N35tn, which is the capital component of 2026 budget, will be moved to the 2027, thereby continuing this shambolic process of running minimum of two budgets at a time,” Odeyemi said.
The DLA spokesman urged Nigerians to demand greater transparency and accountability from the Federal Government regarding the management of public funds.
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“We hereby call on Nigerians to join us in asking the Tinubu administration to account for the humongous funds it received in 2025 if it couldn’t fund the budget,” he said.
Odeyemi also took issue with President Bola Tinubu’s calls for Nigerians to demand accountability from state governors over increased allocations following the removal of the fuel subsidy.
“President Bola Tinubu has at every slight opportunity asked Nigerians to hold Governors of states accountable over huge amount accrued to them from the subsidy removal but he has not at any point told us what he does with larger percentage of the nation’s resources and debilitating loans he took to warrant budgets implementations suffering unprecedented extensions under his leadership,” he said.
He further accused the administration of lacking sufficient understanding of fiscal management and questioned its ability to run the country.
“President Tinubu has continued to show that he lacks basic fiscal knowledge of the nation’s economy and he’s unfit to govern this country,” Odeyemi said.
The DLA spokesman also urged Nigerians to reject Tinubu at the 2027 presidential election, arguing that retaining him in office beyond May 2027 would worsen the country’s situation.
“His continuous stay in office beyond May 2027 will push this country closer to the ruins and all of us must collectively reject such by voting him out at the polls in January.”
Odeyemi said the party had already offered Nigerians what it described as an alternative programme aimed at addressing the country’s economic and fiscal challenges.
“We have presented a better alternative to Nigerians and we believe only DLA will restore the dignity of this country and revive the ailing economic and fiscal processes,” he added.
The National Assembly approved the extension amid concerns over delays in the execution of capital projects under the 2025 budget, moving the implementation deadline from September 30 to December 31, 2026.