Shettima Defends N68.30trn 2026 Budget

Vice President Kashim Shettima has risen in defence of the N68.30 trillion budget recently passed by both chambers of the National Assembly for
for the 2026 financial year.

This was about N10 trillion increase from the N58.18 trillion proposal earlier requested by President Bola Tinubu.

Shettima, an agricultural economist said budgets should not only be people-focused but actually larger than they are presently.

He stated this at a two-day National Policy Dialogue organised by the National Assembly Joint Committee on National Planning and Economic Development with the Theme: “The Imperatives of National Development Plan for Effective Budgeting System and Sustainable Growth Of the Nigerian Economy.”

Represented at the event which began in Abuja on Tuesday,
the Vice President who was represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Matters, Tope Fasua, said this informed the recent adjustment to the 2026 budget.

“This is an apt moment to echo the thoughts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Minister of Budget and Planning to the extent that our budgets should not only be people-focused.

“Our budgets should actually be larger than they are presently. This informed the recent adjustment to the 2026 budget, fiscal budget by about N10 trillion, taking the sum to N68 trillion,” he said.

According to Shettima, some critics have opined that Nigeria should have a much smaller budget but they need to be reminded that budgeting is not a process of reviewing past shortcomings and capitulating to limitations.

The Vice President insisted that it is a process by which Nigeria documents its greater future and challenges itself to do even better than the past.

“The usual refrain about revenue generation has been well addressed by Mr. President’s Acts on Revenue Reforms, which have kicked in since January 2026, with great promise. Many institutions have become fiscalised. Many are leading to a decline.
Many institutions have become fiscalised. Many are leading to a better capture of revenues that would have otherwise been lost to government,” he said.

Shettima further explained that, many tariffs on essential raw materials and other similar products were reduced to the benefit of the citizenry.

“This deft move signals that the Tinubu government greatly cares for the people of Nigeria, and there is so much more to come. Economic planning is a national imperative, and President Tinubu is a great believer in this idea, not necessarily in the rigidities and strictures reminiscent of Soviet-era economics, but in a more nuanced and data-driven manner, which quickly distills into the economic well-being of the people.

“Currently, our budgets are being guided by the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) as well as the national development plans. These plans could be put together by the budgets and planning ministry,” he added.

Corroborating the Vice President’s views, a former Director General, Budget Office, Ben Akabueze called for revitalisation and reforms to ensure a more realistic and sustainable budgeting process in the country that is tied to the country’s quest for development.

Akabueze in a paper titled: “Linking Budgeting To Planning and Bridging The Implementation Gap In Nigeria: Strategies For Enhanced Fiscal Discipline, Development Outcomes, And Accountability,” said Nigeria has over the years had several development plans.

“Currently we have the Renewable Medium-Term Plan 2026 to 2030. It’s important to make a point upfront that even the budget itself is a plan. But it is intended to be a snapshot of that development plan for the one-year period. However, persistent gaps between development plans and actual implementation have adversely affected development outcomes.

“One symptom of that which makes the case incontestable is the fact that we currently have estimated over 56,000 abandoned projects scattered around the country. This is without any doubt at all a symptom of failure in linking our budgets to our plans and therefore development outcomes. A budget should be the compass that directs resources toward development priorities.

“But truth be told, it’s helpful to what extent our budgets have achieved this objective. To serve as a compass to direct our resources toward development priorities. I believe that the goal of all of us today must be to move from budgeting for expenditure to budgeting for development outcomes.

“And it’s from that perspective that I make this presentation. Why do we have the gaps? Let’s try and define this problem. One of the reasons we have this gap, I believe, is the absence of a budget law.

“Our budget process, and I’m speaking about fair government, is not governed by clear laws and rules. The constitution, which is the ground law, makes some vague provisions about the budget. To illustrate how vague those provisions are, the constitution just says the president will lay a budget to the National Assembly before the beginning of the fiscal year to which the budget applies.

“So technically, based on Nigeria’s constitution, if the president laid the budget for 2027, the National Assembly, on the 31st of December 2026, he would be in compliance with the constitution.”

Akabueze noted that the constitution is very vague in terms of defining the respective roles of the executive and the legislature in the budget process.

“That’s why, since 1999 consistently, we’ve had these conflicts. So, what is normal in whatever constitutional provisions is for countries to enact budget laws, often referred to as organic budget law.

“There have been several attempts to do so. The last attempt that I was part of, actually the 9th House of Reps had it as one of their cardinal goods to pass the budget law.

“We also then have the challenge of weak linkage. There’s a disconnect between our national plans and our budget allocations. That’s not how it is designed to be, but that’s the reality of what we have in practise,” he added.