The African Democratic Congress on Thursday accused President Bola Tinubu of prioritizing his 2027 reelection bid over governance, alleging widespread budget failures, policy reversals and worsening insecurity under his administration.
In a statement issued in Abuja by its national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the opposition party said the federal government is effectively running three national budgets at once while struggling to implement them.
“The ADC has noted recent reports that signify utter confusion and a historic level of incompetence in the Tinubu administration’s implementation of national budgets since 2024,” Abdullahi said. “This is the first time in Nigerian history that any government would be running three budgets at the same time while implementing none.”
The party said although the 2024 budget was rolled over into 2025, only 17.7% of the capital component had been released as of the third quarter of 2025, with overall implementation below 30%.
The government has described the arrangement as a deliberate strategy and a transition measure to ensure completion of multiyear capital projects. The ADC rejected that explanation, calling it “a blatant falsehood.”
According to the party, about 30% of the 2025 budget is expected to run from February to Nov. 30, 2026, while the remaining 70% would be rolled over into the 2026 budget, which is still under consideration by the National Assembly. It also recalled that Tinubu had pledged that all capital components of the 2024 and 2025 budgets would be concluded by March 31, 2026.
Citing sectoral data, the ADC said capital budget implementation for the Ministry of Power stands at 3.6%, Communications Technology at 8.9%, Education at 23.5% and Health at 32.5%.
The party said the only ministry that exceeded its budget performance — at 113.45% — was the Ministry of Defence, largely due to emergency funding through the Service-Wide Vote. Despite that, it said insecurity has continued to spread.
“Recent reports indicate that in this month of Ramadan alone, up to 500 Nigerians may have been killed by terrorists in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Kebbi,” the statement said.
The ADC also questioned the administration’s claims of record revenue and improved foreign reserves, alleging that the government has borrowed more aggressively than previous administrations while contractors remain unpaid and projects stalled.
Tinubu’s government has not immediately responded to the allegations.
The party said Nigeria continues to face deepening poverty and insecurity and accused the administration of focusing more on politics than governance.
