Abuja — Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, has criticised the Federal Government over what he described as fiscal recklessness in the management of Nigeria’s national budgets, warning that the country is drifting into a credibility crisis in public finance.
In a statement posted on his official X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday, Obi questioned which budget Nigeria is currently operating, ahead of the Senate’s expected approval of the 2026 national budget on March 17.
He observed that since 2023, Nigeria has been implementing budget components from multiple fiscal years simultaneously, a situation he described as abnormal and damaging to sound financial management.
According to Obi, President Bola Tinubu inherited a ₦21.83 trillion budget in 2023, which was later expanded with a ₦2.17 trillion supplementary budget. He argued that the supplementary allocation prioritised benefits for public office holders despite widespread economic hardship faced by Nigerians.
Obi noted that the trend continued with the approval of ₦35.06 trillion for the 2024 budget and ₦54.99 trillion for 2025, bringing total budgetary appropriations under the current administration to over ₦114 trillion in less than three years.
Despite the scale of spending, the former Anambra State governor expressed concern that budget implementation has remained below 50 per cent, describing the situation as a serious credibility problem for government finances.
He also faulted the Federal Government for repealing and re-enacting the 2024 and 2025 budgets with extended timelines, stating that Nigerians were not provided with clear details of the revised budgets or their capital projects.
Obi further accused the government of weakening transparency, alleging that treasury reports were no longer being published on the OpenTreasury.gov.ng platform and that no budget implementation report was released in 2025.
“This lack of transparency is not accidental; it reflects a deliberate pattern of undermining public scrutiny and debate,” Obi said. “The Federal Government has stopped publishing treasury reports on the OpenTreasury.gov.ng portal, dismantling a vital transparency framework inherited from the previous administration.”
He warned that no country could succeed under such fiscal practices and called on the government to urgently restore discipline, transparency, and accountability in budget management.
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