DLA faults extension of 2025 capital budget implementation

…Says: N35trn 2026 capital budget may be pushed into 2027

By Luminous Jannamike

ABUJA – The Democratic and Leadership Alliance, DLA, has faulted the extension of the implementation of the capital component of the 2025 budget to December 31, 2026, saying more than N35 trillion in the 2026 capital budget may consequently be pushed into 2027.

The party said the development was troubling, particularly as the 2024 budget remained incompletely funded while little had been done on the 2026 budget, raising fresh questions about the government’s capacity to execute its spending plans within the relevant fiscal years.

In a statement by the Head of Media and Publicity of its National Campaign Council, Dr Tosin Odeyemi, the DLA said the latest extension was the fourth time implementation of the same budget had been extended.

“We are more concerned that this is the fourth time the implementation of this same budget has been extended and with the latest one, it shows that the Bola Tinubu-led administration has continued to fail Nigerians in even the most basic metric of governance,” Odeyemi said.

He said the extension could leave the country running overlapping budgets, with serious implications for its finances.

“The looming fiscal and economic crisis this administration is inviting shows that over N35trn, which is the capital component of 2026 budget, will be moved to 2027, thereby continuing this shambolic process of running minimum of two budgets at a time,” he said.

The DLA also demanded an account of the resources available to the Federal Government in 2025, questioning why the budget could not be adequately funded.

“We hereby call on Nigerians to join us in asking the Tinubu administration to account for the humongous funds it received in 2025 if it couldn’t fund the budget,” Odeyemi said.

The party further questioned the Federal Government’s management of national revenues and borrowing, contrasting it with President Bola Tinubu’s calls for Nigerians to hold state governors accountable over increased allocations following the removal of fuel subsidy.

“President Bola Tinubu has at every slight opportunity asked Nigerians to hold Governors of states accountable over huge amount accrued to them from the subsidy removal but he has not at any point told us what he does with larger percentage of the nation’s resources and debilitating loans he took to warrant budgets implementations suffering unprecedented extensions under his leadership,” he said.

Odeyemi also linked the party’s criticism of the administration to the 2027 election, saying Tinubu’s continued stay in office beyond May 2027 would worsen the country’s situation.

“His continuous stay in office beyond May 2027 will push this country closer to the ruins and all of us must collectively reject such by voting him out at the polls in January,” he said.

The DLA said it had presented what it described as a better alternative to Nigerians, promising to revive the country’s economic and fiscal processes.

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