Andy Ezeani
Tuesday,July 28,2026
There is politicking. There is political disputation. Then, there is criminality in politics. The facts surrounding the 2026 national budget of Nigeria fall squarely under the latter categorisation.
If conducts in public offices in Nigeria were regulated by ethics of service and decency, there would be dire consequences for the gross misdeed that accompanied what is called Nigeria’s 2026 annual budget.
Atiku Abubakar, former vice president and presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) only added his voice to the malfeasance in the 2026 budget when he raised series of issues about certain provisions in the budget. What Atiku said was simply what millions of Nigerians who are equally piqued about the 2026 budget have been saying at their varied corners.
In a characteristic unrepentant posture, however, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) left the kernel of the query raised by Atiku and opened a fight over what it called Atiku’s past. As if whatever that past was justifies the monumental fraud at hand.
There will be ample time for the records and profile of President Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar to be weighed and interrogated. Until the time comes for that matchup, the distressing question on the lips of Nigerians over the 2026 budget is, who is ravaging their patrimony? How can any normal set of human beings commit the magnitude of the infraction found in budget 2026?
Among the issues raised by the former vice president was the provision in the budget of a hefty opaque sum of N12.8 billion under the sub-head of Service-Wide Vote (SWV). The provision is for no declared purpose. Coming on the eve of the 2027 general election, Atiku Abubakar criticized the provision, saying that such a humongous amount tied to no specific project could easily be deployed for political campaigns by the government. A genuine fear.
Instead of allaying such fears, the APC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, took to castigating Atiku. At Abubakar’s level, they said, he ought to know what SWV is about. Heck! The man said he did not know what the allocation was for. Tell him. Explain to Nigerians whose resources are being pillaged so unscrupulously.
As it has turned out, the SWV is but a fraction of the dizzying provisions in the 2026 budget.
In late 2025, President Tinubu sent a proposal of N58.18 trillion to the National Assembly as the estimate for the 2026 national budget. The National Assembly spent the next two or three months ostensibly interrogating and fine-tuning the estimate. Processing a budget proposal as it is made to appear is a painstaking task.It involves,among ithers, the defense of the proposals by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the government.
At the end of the day, the National Assembly raised the 2026 annual budget figure from the proposed N58.18 trillion to N68.323 trillion, a whopping increase of N10 trillion.
On March 31 2026, President Tinubu signed the N68.323 budget for 2026 into law, thereby taking ownership of the document reverted to him by the National Assembly.
Lo and behold, what did Nigerians find in the 2026 budget document? Brigandage. Unbridled malfeasance at its highest level, the type of abuse that attracts mortal consequences in societies that are averse to betrayal of public trust.
As it has turned out, while the legislators were purportedly scrutinizing the budget proposal, they were actually finetuning steps to fleece Nigerians, padding the budget with line items intended to defraud. They got away with the 2025 budget padding,anyway.
Late last week, BudgIT, the budget tracking and accountability group through its focused division, Tracka, threw an illuminating shattering light on the provisions in the 2026 budget. What a jolt.
The N68.323 trillion 2026 budget that was touted as furthering the policy of reform by the government turned out to be worse than a painted sepulchre. The 2026 budget as it has unraveled is, perhaps, the biggest body of evidence advanced by the Tinubu presidency against itself in sincerity of purpose. Very scandalous.
A tip of the provisions in the budget include; N22.15 billion earmarked for the renovation and furnishing of 106 palaces nationwide; N8 billion for construction, renovation and allied projects in support of mosques and churches all over Nigeria. Of the allocation for the religious places, N1.91 billion was allocated for churches while N6.14 billion was allocated for 52 mosques across the country.
The budgeted money for the worship places was to cover construction and renovation of worship places, installation of solar power and boreholes, musical equipment for churches, carpets, residences for imams and facilities for Islamiyya schools
As if to confirm the implausible budget provisions in the national budget for anyone too shocked to believe it, Benjamin Kalu, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, issued a statement over the weekend explaining that the N1 billion allocated to the churches in Abia state is indeed, for his Bende Federal constituency.
According to the clarification by the Deputy Speaker, there are 131 churches in Bende Federal Constituency and the allocation, which he said was actually N780 million and not N1billion, when VAT and other charges are removed, is not only for musical equipment in the churches of Bende Federal Constituency, but also for youth empowerment, ostensibly around the churches. So, indeed, the allocations are authentic.
Other provisions in the budget include N1 billion for solar installations at mosques in Zamfara State; N5.85 billion for 11 palaces, the location of which was not specified.
The Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI), Lagos, was allocated N3.92 billion which covered N1billion to build pavilions and solar power at Oluyin Palace in Iyin Ekiti; N525 million for a palace hall at Ojo, Lagos; N337.13 million at Itire Ikate, Lagos; N315 million for a palace for Agbana of Isanlu palace in Kogi State, N140 million for Otosho of Agbashi Palace in Nasarawa State etc
The National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT) was allocated N200 million to renovate the palaces of district heads in Gudu/Tangaza in Sokoto state.
The Federal Cooperative College, Oji River in Enugu state, got N500 million for palaces in Ondo State, N200 million for the Obi Palace pavilion in Aniocha/Oshimili in Delta State and N175 million for the palace of Emir of Shonga
The National Cereals Research Institute in Niger state was allocated N400 million to construct traditional rulers’ palaces in Oruk Anam LGA of Akwa Ibom state, while the Federal College of Horticulture, Dadin-Kowa, Gombe State was allocated N280 million for VIP guest palaces in Gombe
The Federal College of Land Resources Technology, Kuru, Jos, was allocated N350 million for the palace of Okumagbe of Iuleha in Edo State. etc, etc.
Of course, there is the N1.3 billion to the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), now said to be a fake agency.
This is the face of the reform the Tinubu presidency is pursuing; taxing Nigerians to death and borrowing from every possible multi-lateral institution, only to entrap the trillions of Naira for political patronage among a clique, in the guise of building mosques, church and palaces. These are the development focus of a federal government, not even a local government, in 2026. How more yoked can a country be?
