The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has described the 2026 Budget Proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday, December 19, as mere wishful thinking.
The ADC said the budget proposal is basically a consolidation of fiscal recklessness and renewed wishful thinking that have become the hallmark of the Tinubu administration.
The position of the ADC was made known in a statement on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi.
The statement said the Tinubu government has failed to embrace fiscal discipline and budget credibility and is only attempting to implement more than four budgets simultaneously, because it lacks the basic competence to close out previous cycles and adhere to its own timelines.
It added that the details of the budget are scanty, but revenue projections and fuel price benchmarks are grossly unrealistic.
The ADC warned the National Assembly against passing the 2026 budget, which it described as another debt trap, adding that the current administration is only blindly pursuing propaganda without regard for the people of the country.
Below is the full statement as made available to Naijaonpoint.
“After a careful review of the 2026 Budget Proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Friday, December 19, 2025, the ADC Team of Economists concludes as follows:
“Although it was presented as a “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity,” what was laid before Nigerians is merely a consolidation of 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 debt and greater misery in the years ahead.
“The 2026 budget proposal simply copies the templates of the failed, poorly implemented, and perhaps unimplementable 2024 and 2025 budgets, and will most likely end the same way, with the bulk of its implementation deferred to another year.
“We are witnessing a government attempting to build a house on quicksand, presenting a new fiscal framework at a time when the 2025 budget has only just been repealed and reenacted, in a display of unprecedented fiscal chaos and administrative incompetence.
“The truth is that Nigeria is caught in a fiscal mess. But rather than confront these problems, the Tinubu administration has continued to kick the can down the street, believing it can hide yawning cracks under mountains of unsustainable debt that mortgage the future of the next generation, while indulging in financial profligacy.
“This administration fails to grasp a fundamental economic truth: no amount of monetary tinkering or central bank intervention can rescue an economy if the government refuses to embrace fiscal discipline and budget credibility. What we have seen under this Tinubu APC administration is a chaotic attempt to implement more than four budgets simultaneously, because it lacks the basic competence to close out previous cycles and adhere to its own timelines.
“Governments may extend budget implementation periods or manage supplementary budgets, but operating three or more national budgets simultaneously is President Tinubu’s original contribution to fiscal chaos. It has never happened before in this country.
“Overall, what is most evident is the administration’s penchant for turning fiscal planning into a hollow ritual and political ceremony that mocks the suffering of the Nigerian people. While revenues were pushed to N20tn in 2024, a figure driven more by the pain of currency devaluation than genuine economic productivity, the government had the audacity to double its projections to N40tn for 2025, and then raise it further to N58.57tn in 2026. This is not vision, it is fantasy.
“The 2026 budget, which remains dangerously scant on detail, embarks on yet another unsustainable expansion built on a foundation of quicksand. At a time when oil projections are weakening and global prices are dipping as tensions in Europe show signs of cooling, the Federal Government has inexplicably set a benchmark of $64 per barrel. Instead of adopting a conservative posture to shield the nation from global volatility, it is chasing a N34tn revenue target that is completely disconnected from reality, especially now that the artificial bounce provided by the devaluation of the Naira has fully evaporated. One is left to wonder whether this government ever considers alternative scenarios beyond those that suit its own mindset.
“Perhaps most terrifying is the sheer scale of the deficit and what it reveals about this government’s disregard for the next generation. This administration behaves as though, after them, there will be no Nigeria. A budget that plans to generate N34tn in revenue while borrowing N24tn is an open admission of fiscal insolvency. In no sane or functional fiscal system would a deficit-to-revenue ratio of 70 percent be considered acceptable, or even contemplated.
“The document presented before the National Assembly on December 19 is a debt trap masquerading as a budget. The government claims it will spend N25.68tn on capital expenditure, yet with a projected deficit of N23.85tn, it is clear that nearly every bridge, road, or project is being funded by high-interest debt. Even with a transparent capital plan, this alone should raise concern. It becomes even more alarming when government borrows recklessly to fund opaque and often frivolous expenditures. It is one thing to squander current revenues on the excesses of the state, but it is an unpardonable sin to raise massive debt to fund reckless spending, effectively burying our children under a mountain of obligations before they even enter the workforce.
“The fundamentals of the 2026 budget document betray a complete abandonment of revenue credibility and deficit management. The consequences of this incompetence are already evident. Driven by the twin forces of devaluation and surging borrowing, Nigeria’s debt servicing costs have exploded from N12.63tn in 2024 to a projected N15.52tn in 2026. There is no fiscal doctrine on earth that justifies a path of persistently high deficits combined with such astronomical servicing costs.
“This administration has hit a wall, and it is clear that it is blinded by its own propaganda. Nigeria urgently needs a new direction and a radical departure from this path of ruin, to rebuild a fiscal structure that serves the people, not just the creditors.”