African Democratic Congress Claims 2026 Budget Reflects Fiscal Insolvency

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has flayed the 2026 Budget Proposal of N58.57tn, adding that a plan to generate N34tn in revenue while borrowing N24tn is an admission of fiscal insolvency.

The opposition party added that in no sane or functional fiscal system would a deficit-to-revenue ratio of 70 percent be considered acceptable or even contemplated.

ADC added that the budget is a debt trap masquerading as a budget, stressing that the government’s plan to spend N25.68tn on capital expenditure, with a projected deficit of N23.85tn, is a clear sign that almost every single bridge, road, or project is being funded by high-interest debts.

The party made these observations after its team of economists reviewed the 2026 budget proposal presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last Friday.

The national publicity secretary of the ADC, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, who signed the statement on the party’s review of the budget proposal, said although it was presented as a “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity,” labelled it “a consolidation of the fiscal recklessness and renewed wishful thinking that have become the hallmark of the Tinubu administration.”

He added that the budget is capable of sharing more debts and greater misery in the years ahead if approved.

He added that the 2026 budget proposal is a copy of the “failed, unimplemented and perhaps, unimplementable 2024 and 2025 budgets” and will most likely end up in the same way, with the bulk of its implementation pushed to another year.

The statement read in part, “Perhaps most terrifying is the sheer scale of the deficit and what it reveals about this government’s lack of concern for the next generation.

“This administration behaves as if after them, there would be no Nigeria anymore. A budget that plans to generate N34tn in revenue while borrowing N24tn is an admission of fiscal insolvency. In no sane or functional fiscal system would a deficit-to-revenue ratio of 70% be considered acceptable or even be contemplated at all.

“The document presented before the National Assembly on December 19 is a debt trap masquerading as a budget. The government claims it will spend N25.68tn on capital expenditure, yet with a projected deficit of N23.85tn, 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 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,” it stated.

While noting that the budget’s fundamentals betray a total abandonment of revenue credibility and deficit management, the opposition party said the consequences of this incompetence are already staring the country in the face.

“Driven by the twin engines of devaluation and surging borrowing, Nigeria’s debt servicing costs have exploded from N12.63tn in 2024 to a projected and staggering N15.52tn in 2026.

“There is no fiscal doctrine on earth that justifies a path of high deficits paired with such astronomical servicing costs,” the party added.

It further claimed that the administration has hit a wall, and are blinded by their own propaganda.

It stressed that the federal government 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.