The African Democratic Congress, ADC, has condemned President Bola Tinubu over the 2026 budget proposal, describing it as a deadly debt trap that threatens to mortgage Nigeria’s future and exacerbate the country’s financial predicament.
In a preliminary analysis of Tinubu’s budget presentation to the National Assembly, the opposition party stated the proposal reveals rising economic recklessness, administrative instability, and a troubling lack of care for future generations.
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC’s National Publicity Secretary, disputed the government’s claim that the proposal represents a ‘Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience, and Shared Prosperity,’ arguing that the document reflects a continuation of failed fiscal practices under the Tinubu administration.
“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 ADC said.
“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.
“We are witnessing a government pursuing policies without a stable foundation,” the party said, adding that the practice of operating three or more national budgets at the same time reflects what it described as Tinubu’s approach to fiscal management.
“Rather than confront the problems, the Tinubu administration has continued to kick the can down the street, believing that they can continue to hide the yawning cracks under mountains of unsustainable debts that mortgage the future generation.”
Regarding revenue predictions, the party labeled the estimates in the budget as implausible, recalling that receipts surged to roughly N20 trillion in 2024, mostly due to currency depreciation, before being quadrupled to N40 trillion in 2025 and raised to N58.57 trillion in the 2026 proposal.
“This is not a vision; it is a fantasy,” the ADC stated.
The party questioned the budget’s $64-per-barrel oil baseline, noting that weaker oil estimates and lower world prices make the assumptions hazardous and unrealistic. It stated that the N34 trillion income target excludes alternate eventualities and is based on conditions that no longer exist.
More concerning, the ADC stated, is the amount of the expected deficit, adding that the government intends to borrow around N24 trillion against estimated revenues of N34 trillion.
“A budget that plans to generate N34 trillion in revenue while borrowing N24 trillion is an admission of fiscal insolvency. In no sane or functional fiscal system would a deficit-to-revenue ratio of 70 percent be considered acceptable,” the statement said.
“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 review also noted increased debt servicing costs, which the party claimed had risen from N12.63 trillion in 2024 to an estimated N15.52 trillion in 2026.
“There is no fiscal doctrine on earth that justifies a path of high deficits paired with such astronomical servicing costs,” the ADC said.
