The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has sharply criticised President Bola Tinubu’s 2026 budget proposal, describing it as a dangerous debt trap that could mortgage Nigeria’s future and worsen the country’s fiscal crisis.
In a preliminary assessment of the budget presented to the National Assembly, the opposition party said the proposal exposes deepening fiscal recklessness, administrative confusion and what it described as a troubling disregard for future generations.
In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC faulted the government’s claim that the document is a “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity.” According to the party, the proposal merely continues what it called the failed fiscal patterns that have defined the Tinubu administration so far.
“What was presented is only a consolidation of fiscal recklessness and renewed wishful thinking,” the party said, warning that if approved, the budget would only spread more debt and hardship in the years ahead.
The ADC argued that the 2026 proposal largely mirrors the 2024 and 2025 budgets, which it described as either poorly implemented or completely unworkable. It accused the government of running multiple budgets simultaneously without a stable fiscal foundation, calling this approach chaotic and unsustainable.
On revenue projections, the party dismissed the figures as unrealistic, noting that government revenue rose to about N20 trillion in 2024 largely due to naira devaluation, before being projected at N40 trillion in 2025 and now N58.57 trillion in 2026. “This is not vision, it is fantasy,” the ADC said.
The party also questioned the $64-per-barrel oil benchmark used in the budget, warning that weakening oil demand and softening global prices make the assumptions risky and detached from reality. It said the N34 trillion revenue target fails to account for alternative scenarios and depends on conditions that may no longer exist.
More concerning, according to the ADC, is the scale of borrowing planned in the budget. The party noted that the government intends to borrow about N24 trillion against projected revenues of N34 trillion, describing this as an admission of fiscal insolvency.
“A deficit-to-revenue ratio of about 70 percent is unacceptable in any sane fiscal system,” the statement said, warning that massive borrowing to fund spending would leave future generations buried under debt even before entering the workforce.
The ADC also highlighted rising debt servicing costs, which it said have grown from N12.63 trillion in 2024 to a projected N15.52 trillion in 2026. According to the party, no credible fiscal framework supports running high deficits alongside such heavy debt service obligations.
The opposition party concluded that unless the budget assumptions and borrowing plans are urgently reviewed, Nigeria risks sliding deeper into a debt crisis with long-term consequences for economic stability and national development.
