By Uche Usim and Chinelo Obogo
At a time majority of Nigerians are battling multidimensional poverty, the federal government’s N54.99 trillion 2025 budget, touted as a catalyst for economic transformation, has come under fire for duplicative projects, frivolous spending, inflated allocations and apparent violations of fiscal responsibility laws.
According to analysts, such dangerous infusion and outrageous spending template leaves no little hope for common Nigerians who continue to wallow in abject poverty.
There are also concerns about President Bola Tinubu’s intent to secure external loans of $21.5 million and ¥15 billion, along with a grant of €65 million, as part of the federal government’s proposed 2025–2026 external borrowing plan. Although he stated that the funds are intended to drive job creation, promote skill acquisition, support entrepreneurship, alleviate poverty and strengthen food security, growing concerns persist over whether these promises reflect genuine intent, or if the resources will instead bankroll questionable and frivolous expenditures.
A review of the budget by Daily Sun shows repeated and overlapping projects as line items like “solar street lights,” “classroom repairs” and “cash grants to constituents” dominate the allocations.
For example, the Ministry of Arts and Culture’s budget includes six identical entries for the “renovation and furnishing of artist hostels in Abuja,” each with the same amount and budget code.
In the budget, the provision of streetlights appeared 1,477 times across different ministries, with a total budget allocation of N393.29 billion, which when calculated, brings it to N266 million per streetlight. The empowerment of traditional rulers appeared 32 times, with a budget allocation of N6.74 billion, while the construction of boreholes appeared 538 times, with a total allocation of N114.53 billion and the renovation of community town halls appeared 43 times, with a budget allocation of N17.23 billion.
Included in the line items under the Ministry of Agriculture were the construction of a multipurpose civic center in Niger State for N400 million and the general remodeling of Aliyu Ndayako Memorial Stadium in Niger for N500 million.
Under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, N4 billion was allocated for the completion of five stadiums in Bichi, Dawakin, Kabo, Tofa and Gwarzo and under the Ministry of Information, N10,179,400 was allocated for the “Establishment of a Corruption Conduct Index, N50 million was allocated for the construction of a school perimeter fence with a gatehouse in Doma, N100 million was allocated for the provision of grains to residents of Mabuhu in Kaduna State and N200 million was allocated for the supply of rice to constituents in Southern Ijaw, Bayelsa. Under the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation, N12 million was budgeted for the “Implementation of the New Nigeria Tourism Development Act”, while N100 million was allocated for the procurement and distribution of farming equipment to young farmers in Epe.
The allocation to the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), shows N800 million for “Honorarium and sitting allowances”, N150 million to “Supply and furnish royal fathers’ homes in Gombe” among others.
The 2025 budget, the largest in the nation’s history, also has projects outside the mandates of the ministries assigned to execute them.
An example is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was allocated N300 million for “Provision of relief items and capacity development for IDPs in the North East,” raising questions as to why humanitarian crises are not handled by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs.
Agencies like the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), whose core mandate is research, were allocated N2.5 billion, N2 billion, N1.5 billion for road construction and N1 billion for vehicle procurement. Another example is the Federal Co-operative College, Oji River, whose responsibility is with cooperative education, was allocated N1 billion for streetlights, N1.5 billion for community electrification and N3 billion to buy vehicles for farmers.
Similarly, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation was allocated N1 billion for the renovation of INEC offices despite the fact the electoral commission has its own budget, while the Ministry of Agriculture, which is grappling with worsening food insecurity, was allocated N100 million to train hairdressers and the Ministry of Transportation was allocated N240 million to purchase grinding machines.
There is also the proliferation of “cash grants” inserted by legislators. Some lawmakers are allocated as much as N300 million to distribute as grants. Critics argue these grants, which are placed outside agencies like the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, are chosen because they demand less accountability than tangible projects like roads.
Budgit had criticised the 2025 budget, stating that President Bola Tinubu’s directive to increase it by N4.5 trillion bypassed the mandatory Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), a cornerstone of Nigeria’s Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2007. The National Assembly then further increased the budget without justification.
Budgit says this overspending breaches the constitutional limit on fiscal deficits (3% of GDP) by over N3 trillion and relies on optimistic oil production forecasts of 2.06 million barrels per day, despite current production struggling below 1.3 million barrels.