PDP Slams Tinubu’s 2025 Budget as Anti-People, Calls for Rejection

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has strongly criticized the proposed 2025 national budget, urging the National Assembly not to approve it. The party described the budget as “anti-people” and warned that its implementation could exacerbate insecurity, poverty, and despair in Nigeria.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s spokesperson, dismissed President Bola Tinubu’s budget address as “campaign rhetoric laced with unsubstantiated economic statistics.” Ologunagba accused the president of presenting a budget that failed to address Nigeria’s pressing economic challenges, such as insecurity, unemployment, and inflation.

President Tinubu had earlier on Wednesday presented a national budget of N47.96 trillion to a joint session of lawmakers in the National Assembly. He claimed the budget would usher in prosperity for Nigerians in 2025, if fully implemented, and would build on key policies of his administration.

However, the PDP rejected the president’s budget as it did not include “meaningful provisions” for critical sectors of the national economy. Ologunagba further criticized the budget for lacking clear plans to tackle key issues, such as reviving ailing industries, boosting food production, improving the value of the Naira, and addressing the rising cost of living.

The PDP also expressed disappointment that the budget did not include strategies for reducing fuel costs, food prices, electricity tariffs, or other essential goods and services that directly impact the well-being of Nigerians.

“The PDP calls on the National Assembly to reject the 2025 budget in its current form,” the statement said. “We urge the legislature to exercise its constitutional powers under Sections 80, 81, and 82 of the 1999 Constitution to restructure the budget, making provisions that are critical to Nigeria’s economic growth and the welfare of its citizens.”

As the debate on the 2025 appropriation bill heats up, all eyes are now on the National Assembly to see whether lawmakers will heed the PDP’s call for a revision of the proposed budget.