ADC Faults 2026 Appropriation Bill, Says It’s ‘Budget of Quicksand, Debts, Wishful Thinking’

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

African Democratic Congress (ADC) yesterday said after carefully reviewing the 2026 Appropriation Bill presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it came to the conclusion that what was presented was only a consolidation of fiscal recklessness and renewed wishful thinking.

ADC said, ‘’If approved, the only thing this budget is capable of sharing is more debts and greater misery in the years ahead.’’

According to National Publicity Secretary of ADC, Bolaji Abdullahi, the 2026 budget proposal only copied the templates of the failed, unimplemented, and, perhaps, unimplementable 2024 and 2025 budgets and would most likely end up in the same way, with the bulk of its implementation pushed to another year.

Abdullahi stated, ‘’We are witnessing a government that attempts to build a house on quicksand, presenting a new fiscal framework at a time when the 2025 budget has only just been repealed and re-enacted in a display of unprecedented fiscal chaos and administrative incompetence.

‘’Truth is, Nigeria is caught in a fiscal mess. But rather than confront the problems, the Tinubu administration has continued to kick the can down the streets, believing that they can continue to hide the yawning cracks under mountains of unsustainable debts that mortgages the future generation, while they continue to indulge 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.’’

Abdullahi further said, ‘’Governments may extend budget implementation period or manage multiple 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.’’

ADC said what was most evident was the administration’s penchant for turning fiscal planning into a hollow ritual and political ceremonies that mocked the suffering of the Nigerian people.

It stated, ‘’While revenues were pushed to N20 trillion in 2024, a figure driven more by the pains of currency devaluation than by genuine economic productivity, the government had the audacity to double its projections to N40 trillion for 2025 and even raising it to N58.57 trillion 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.

“In an era where 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, they chase a N34 trillion revenue target that is totally disconnected from reality, especially now that the artificial ‘bounce’ provided by the devaluation of the Naira has fully evaporated.

‘’We wonder if this government ever considers alternative scenarios, other than the one that favours their mind-set.’’

The statement said what was most terrifying was the sheer scale of the deficit and what it revealed about the government’s lack of concern for the next generation.

It said, ‘’This administration behaves as if after them, there would be no Nigeria anymore. 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 or even be contemplated at all.”

ADC said the document presented before the National Assembly last Friday was a debt trap masquerading as a budget.

Abdullahi said, ‘’The government claims it will spend N25.68 trillion on capital expenditure, yet with a projected deficit of N23.85 trillion, it is clear that almost every single bridge, road, or project is being funded by high-interest debts. Even with a transparent capital plan in place, this, on its own, calls for concern.

‘’But it is even more alarming when the government borrows mindlessly 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 debts to fund reckless spending, effectively burying our children under a mountain of debt obligations before they even enter the workforce.”

He added, ‘’The fundamentals of this 2026 budget document betray a total abandonment of revenue credibility and deficit management. The consequences of this incompetence are already staring us in the face.

“Driven by the twin engines of devaluation and surging borrowing, Nigeria’s debt service costs have exploded from N12.63 trillion in 2024 to a projected and staggering 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.

‘’This administration has hit a wall, and it is clear that they are blinded by their own propaganda. The federal government of Nigeria is in desperate need of a new pair of eyes and a radical departure from this path of ruin to rebuild a fiscal structure that serves the people rather than just the creditors.’’