Priye S. Torulagha
The fact that Nigeria is facing severe financial and economic problems cannot be understated. Some of the problems originate from unconventional and misleading budgeting tactics, massive financial mismanagement, and corruption perpetrated by high-level appointed and elected public officials. The anomalous financial management style is leading to the concoction of national budgets that do not reflect reality. Hence, the national budget under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appears to be a mere smoke and mirrors, like tricks perform by a magician.
The Budget Roll Overs and Underfunding of Capital Projects
The figures presented in the annual national budgets by President Tinubu’s administration since he got into power should be accepted with a grain of salt. For instance, of the 2024 national budget figures that were approved for capital projects by the National Assembly, only 40% of the funds were distributed to various ministries, departments, and agencies for the execution of projects that were authorized by the national legislature. This meant that N10.5 trillion of the 2024 budget was rolled over to 2025 budget cycle. Likewise, of the 2025 budget allocations for capital projects that were approved by the National Assembly, only 25% of the allocations were disbursed to the appropriate government ministries, departments, and agencies while 75% of the allocations were transferred or rolled over to 2026. This means that $7.7 billion of 2025 capital project allocations were moved to 2026. Consequently, the 2026 budget cycle includes about 60% of 2024 and 75% of 2025 allocations for capital projects. This further means that the Nigerian government under President Tinubu operates multiple budgets simultaneously without the knowledge of the National Assembly and the citizens.
This is very strange since it is always the case that budget allocations are required to be spent for the year in which they were constitutionally authorized. This means that the 2024 budget allocations for capital projects would have been completely spent on the projects that were approved for in 2024, so was the allocations for capital projects in the 2025 budget. Unfortunately, in Nigeria today, the budget situation is so messed up that it is like someone is playing magic on Nigerians, hence the abracadabra.
Nigerians were not aware of the illegal transfers or roll over of funds for capital projects until Senator Aminu Waziri Tambuwal of Sokoto State made allegations that budget appropriations for capital projects for 2023, 2024, and 2025 were not spent as legally authorized and were being embezzled, did the public begin to pay attention to the budget abracadabra of the Tinubu’s administration. Thereafter, some ministers and departmental heads informed the National Assembly that they only received a tiny fraction of the funds that were allocated for capital projects. For instance, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate informed the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services that “his ministry received only N36 million, about 0.02 percent of the N218 billion that was approved for capital expenditure in the 2025 budget,” (Odekina, 2026, April 4). The failure to release most of the funds that had already been approved for capital projects affected many federal ministries, departments and agencies. This is why capital projects were barely initiated and carried out in 2024 and 2025. Gift Odenika identified some ministries and departments that were short-changed by the tactical roll over of appropriated funds:
Ministry of Women Affairs which got N394.8 million released, just 0.44% of the approved capital budget of N89.8billion; Ministry of Marine & Blue Economy received 202million, about 1.7% released out of the N353 billion capital budget; Ministry of Transportation received N2.5 billion, about 1.0% out of the approved N256.7billion capital budget; Federal Ministry of Housing & Urban Development got N2.0 billion, about 2.0% of the N100billion capital budget; Federal Ministry of Water Resources got N1.0 billion, about 1.5% of the N80billion capital budget; and Ministry of Agriculture & Food Security, which got N3.0 billion out of N120billion budgeted (Odekina, 2026, April 4).
Hon. Alex Mascot Ikwechegh, who represents Aba North/Aba South Federal Constituency in Abia State, was surprised after conducting a critical review of the national budgets for 2024 and 2025 to realize the lack of expenditures on capital projects for those two years. He questioned why the national government did not spend funds on projects that had already been approved by the National Assembly. He then called for investigation to determine why the Tinubu administration failed to spend funds that were already approved for capital projects. His demand for explanation led the former Minister of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun and the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite to admit that trillions were budgeted for capital projects in 2024 and 2025 budget cycles, but the funds were not spent due to certain circumstances.
In confirming the allegation of underfunding of capital projects even though funds had been approved for their execution, the former Minister of Finance, Wale Edun revealed that significant components of the allocations for capital projects for 2024 and 2025 budgets were rolled over to the 2026 budget cycle (Ogundapo, 2025, October 9). It is predictable that a substantial portion of the 2026 budget for capital projects might also be rolled over to 2027, thereby compounding the problem of budget deficits. An analyst explained that Nigeria is suffering from “revenue shortfalls, high debt servicing obligations, competing recurrent expenditure, weak cash-flow, and weak cash management” (Odekina, 2026, April 4).
The Danger of Excessive Borrowing of Loans
Apart from the “now you see it and now you don’t see it” nature of the national budget, is the fact that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is borrowing uncontrollably from both international and domestic sources to fund his administration. It seems that every two or three months, the president submits a request to the National Assembly to seek permission to borrow more money. As a result, the administration has borrowed N159.28 trillion in three years while former President Muhammadu Buhari borrowed N75.26 trillion in eight years. When President Goodluck Jonathan left office, the total national debt was N12.60 trillion (Ibrahim, 2025, September 6). Thus, President Tinubu might win an Olympic goal medal for borrowing incessantly. He is basically borrowing to run the Federal Government of Nigeria despite the stoppage of fuel subsidy and an increase in revenue collection from the Federal Inland Revenue Service and Nigerian Customs. Administration officials tend to blame former President Buhari for creating a financial and economic situations that necessitate borrowing to make up for debt servicing.
Due to the enormity of borrowed loans, a substantial portion of the national budget is now devoted to paying or servicing the debt incurred. As a result, in 2025, more than 27% of the national budget was devoted to servicing the national debt. Currently, the national debt stands at about N159.28 billion which is about $117 bn with domestic debt accounting for N84.84trillion or $59.11bn and external debt taking N74.43 trillion or $51.85 bn of the budget. Thus, debt servicing took more from the national budget than the combined allocations for defense, education and health care in 2025 (David, 2025, October 2).
Perhaps, following the increasing cost of debt servicing, the Nigerian Army only received N1.17trn or 24.94 percent of the N4.52trn it proposed. As a result, out of the N20.56bn that was budgeted by the army for the purchasing of security equipment in 2025, only N1.46bn or 7.11 per cent was released to the army. For the Nigerian Airforce, out of N34.71bn budgeted for aircraft maintenance in 2025, only N4.85bn or 13.98 percent was received. Of the N15.75bn that was allocated for security equipment in 2025, only N5.25bn or 33.33 per cent was released to the Airforce for the purchase of equipment. Of the N298.44bn that was allocated for the purchase of defense equipment in 2025, only N19.25bn or 6.45 per cent was received (A war budget that fails troops, 2026, April 29). Thus, the Nigerian military is seriously underfunded while the country is facing severe insecurity problems.
The underfunding of the armed forces, especially in the areas of military equipment and security, is most probably responsible for the haphazard way the armed forces prosecute the anti-terrorist war. It is now clear why the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Airforce have not been fully mobilized to crush violent herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers and jihadists who are crawling all over the country to inflict death and destruction. They do not have the appropriate military equipment and security infrastructure to effectively take the war to the terrorists. Apart from the underfunding, the military leadership has been repeatedly accused of corruption, thereby compounding the issues that prevent the Nigerian military from ensuring security and territorial integrity of the country (Nweze, 2022, September 10).
To add salt to injury, the Tinubu administration declines to conduct an audit of its financial expenditures. In other words, the administration is not transparent, accountable, or responsible in its management of the national budget. Hence, the citizens are kept in the dark about what the administration is doing with all the borrowed loans. The Nationally Assembly partially bears responsibility for encouraging the unrestrained borrowing of loans.
The Use of Crude Oil as a Collateral
Apart from the unrelenting borrowing and spending by the administration without transparency and accountability, the country’s crude oil is being used as a collateral to borrow loans from foreign sources. For instance, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) used crude oil as a pre-export financing tool to borrow $3 bn from the Afreximbank in August 2023. Again, the NNPC borrowed $3.3 bn in a scheme known as “Project Gazelle Loan. To obtain the loan, the NNPCL committed 90,000 barrels of oil per day of Nigeria’s share of crude oil production to be sold through a special arrangement. Other loan deals involving the use of crude oil as collateral include Project Yield, Project Leopard, and Eagle Export Funding. It is estimated that about 14.66 percent of Nigeria’s crude oil production was allocated for serving crude-backed oil debts in 2025. This is about N8.36 trillion of the 2025 national budget (Construction and Engineering Digest, 2026, March 2).
Do indigenes of the Niger Delta/South-South know that Nigeria is inflicting economic, political, and financial damage on the oil and gas region by using the region’s oil wealth as a collateral to borrow unprecedented amounts of loans? For instance, the NNPCL pledged 272,500 barrels per day of crude oil to secure $8.86bn loan on October 4, 2024. Nigeria also pledged 164.25 million barrels of crude oil to repay other oil backed loans. Nigeria is negotiating with Saudi Arabia to use crude-for-loans totaling $5bn. It is very important for Niger Deltans to understand the perilous situation Nigeria has placed them.
The Awarding of Contracts Without Public Bidding
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu continues to take actions that contribute to his unpopularity. While Nigerians are wondering about the undefendable budget transfers or rollovers that short-change each budget year through tactical underfunding of capital projects, he adds to his financial and political problems by awarding massive contracts to Hitech Construction Company Limited , a company owned by his friend, Gilbert Chagoury, and in which his son is a major shareholder, in violation of the law concerning the awarding of federal government contracts. In a country made up of more than 230 million people, he awards most expensive capital projects to Hitech Company without allowing for public bidding. So far, he has single-handedly awarded the Lagos – Calabar Road project worth $11to $13bn to Hitech (Clifford, 2024, August 20), the Lagos Ports Renovation Project in Apapa and Tin Can project worth $700 million to Hitech Group, the Snake Island Ports Terminal Concession worth $1 bn to Hitech, and the UK – Nigeria Lagos Ports Financing Project which is worth 746 million pounds to Hitech. He did not even bother to submit budget requests to the National Assembly for approval before awarding the contracts personally. He has established a bad precedent that future presidents might follow to create and award their own self-enriching major capital project contracts to their families and friends without public bidding.
The sad part of the president’s management of the national budget is that Nigerians are increasingly powerless to prevent him from wrecking the financial and economic future of the country. The reason is that the National Assembly has failed to perform its statutory work of being the guardian of the public purse. Nigerians are paying a stiff price for the failures. Abracadabra indeed!
References
A war budget that fails troops. (2026, April 29). Daily Trust. https://dailytrust.com/a-war-budget-that-fails-troops/.
Clifford, J. (2024, August 20). How Tinubu’s son, and son of his Lebanese billionaire friend awarded $13bn Lagos – Calabar Highway project – OCCRP Report Newsweek.ng , https://newsweekng.com/how-tinubus-son-seyi-and-son-of-his-lebanese-billionaire-friend-awarded-13billion-lagos-calabar-highway-project-occrp-report/#google_vignette.
Construction and Engineering Digest. (2026, March 2). Crude-backed loans gulp N8.36 tn of 2025 revenue. https://cedmagazineng.com/2026/03/02/crude-backed-loans-gulped-n8-36tn-of-2025-revenue/.
David, I. (2025, October 2). Worrisome loans and high cost of debt servicing in Nigeria. Business Day. https://businessday.ng/opinion/article/worrisome-loans-and-high-cost-of-debt-servicing-in-nigeria/.
Ibrahim, Y. (2025, March 18). Tinubu awards $700m port renovation to his friend’s firm with zero experience. Economy Post. https://economypost.ng/featured/tinubu-awards-700m-port-renovation-contract-to-chagourys-firm-with-zero-experience/2025/03/18/.
Ibrahim, Y. (2025, September 6). Tinubu debt profile: How much Nigeria borrowed since 2023? Economy Post. https://economypost.ng/government-business/revenue-and-expenditure/tinubu-debt-profile-how-much-has-nigeria-borrowed-since-2023/2025/09/06/.
Ogundapo, A. (2025, October 9). Nigeria’s govt promises to stop operating multiple budgets simultaneously. Premium Times. https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/826934-nigerian-govt-promises-to-stop-operating-multiple-budgets-simultaneously.html.
Odekina, G. C. (2026, April 4). Capital Budgets without cash: How trillions approved by NASS failed to reach MDAs. Vanguard. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2026/04/capital-budgets-without-cash-how-ntrillions-approved-by-nass-failed-to-reach-mdas/#google_vignette.
Nweze, K. (2022, September 10). Corruption by military responsible for Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, says ICPC. Arise News. https://www.arise.tv/corruption-by-military-responsible-for-nigerias-worsening-insecurity-says-icpc/.
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