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From Ndubuisi Orji and Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
The National Assembly yesterday said the 2026 Appropriation Bill must reflect the hard lessons of the 2025 fiscal year while translating economic reforms into jobs, higher incomes and improved security for Nigerians.
Lawmakers spoke at the joint sitting of the National Assembly for the presentation of the 2026 Budget by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, where both the Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass reflected on fiscal performance, insecurity and the expectations for the coming year.
In his closing remarks, the Speaker of the House said 2025 unfolded amid “challenging global conditions and fiscal headwinds,” which exposed weaknesses in some budget assumptions.
According to him, the experience did not weaken reforms but reinforced them, adding that the 2026 Budget must build deliberately on those lessons.
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Earlier, Akpabio said insecurity and economic hardship remained major concerns despite ongoing reforms, pledging that the National Assembly would strengthen Nigeria’s security frameworks.
Akpabio assured Nigerians that the legislature would strengthen legal and budgetary support for security agencies, enhance oversight, and work with the Executive to tackle the root causes of insecurity “with clarity, firmness, and compassion.”
Describing the budget as a statement of national priorities, Akpabio said: “Budgets tell a story. Show me a nation’s budget, and I will tell you its priorities, its fears, and its hopes,” adding that the 2026 proposal should be seen as a roadmap for renewal.
Defending the 2025 Budget and its reforms, Akpabio said they required “uncommon courage” to address long-postponed structural weaknesses and were already yielding improved revenues, stronger fiscal discipline and transparency, and investments in infrastructure, energy, agriculture and human capital.
He also highlighted the output of the 10th Senate, citing landmark laws on security-sector coordination, fiscal and economic reforms, governance, judicial administration, electoral integrity, infrastructure, energy, housing and social protection.
