By Kolawole Ojebisi
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar has highlighted reasons why the 2025 budget presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu lacks the capacity to address Nigeria’s challenges and turn around the economy.
Recall that Tinubu presented N49 trillion 2025 budget estimates to the National Assembly last week.
But in a scathing critique he delivered on Sunday, Atiku characterized the budget as a continuation of “business-as-usual fiscal practices,” incapable of fostering sustainable growth or addressing Nigeria’s developmental deficits.
With a revenue forecast of N35 trillion, the 2025 budget projects a deficit exceeding N13 trillion, equivalent to 4% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
To finance this shortfall, the administration plans to borrow over N13 trillion, comprising N9 trillion in direct borrowings and N4 trillion in project-specific loans.
Atiku criticized this reliance on debt, arguing that “it mirrors the unsustainable borrowing trends of past administrations, which have led to spiraling public debt, increased interest payments, and foreign exchange vulnerabilities.”
He identified several critical shortcomings in the budget, questioning its capacity to drive meaningful change.
These include weak budgetary foundations, which he said pointed to the poor execution of the 2024 budget as a warning sign for 2025.
He noted that by the third quarter of 2024, less than 35% of the allocated capital expenditure for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) had been disbursed, despite claims of 85% budget execution.
“This underperformance in capital spending undermines the government’s ability to deliver transformative projects,” Atiku said, expressing doubts over the government’s ability to meet its 2025 objectives.
The former vice president also voiced concern about disproportionate debt servicing, saying that debt servicing will consume N15.8 trillion, or 33% of total expenditure, nearly equaling the N16 trillion earmarked for capital projects.
Atiku emphasized the imbalance in priorities, noting that debt servicing outpaces allocations for key sectors such as defence (N4.91 trillion), infrastructure (N4.06 trillion), education (N3.52 trillion), and health (N2.4 trillion).
He warned that such misallocation could stifle development and perpetuate cycles of borrowing.
Recurrent expenditure in 2025 will account for over N14 trillion, or 30% of the budget, saying this is unsustainable.
Atiku criticized this spending on what he called an “oversized bureaucracy” and inefficient public enterprises, saying it left little room for development investments.
“Without addressing inefficiencies and reducing waste, the government is undermining fiscal stability,” he noted.
He noted that the allocation for capital spending, ranging from 25% to 34% of the total budget is inadequate to address Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit.
With per capita capital allocation averaging just N80,000 (approximately $45), Atiku argued that the budget lacked the transformative capacity needed to stimulate growth and tackle Nigeria’s infrastructural and economic challenges.
The former vice president criticized the administration’s decision to increase the Value Added Tax (VAT) rate from 7.5% to 10%, describing it as a “retrogressive measure” that would worsen the cost-of-living crisis.
He argued that imposing additional tax burdens on struggling Nigerians, without addressing inefficiencies in governance, would stifle domestic consumption and further strain the economy.
The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2023 election concluded that the 2025 budget fails to provide the structural reforms or fiscal discipline needed to address Nigeria’s multifaceted challenges.
“The government must prioritize reducing inefficiencies, tackling contract inflation, and pursuing long-term fiscal sustainability,” he said.
Atiku called for a shift from unsustainable borrowing and excessive recurrent expenditure to a growth-oriented fiscal policy focused on infrastructure, education, and health.
“Nigeria needs a credible budget that reflects the realities of our challenges and offers solutions rooted in efficiency, accountability, and growth,” he said.
