Peter Obi decries NASS’ alleged insertion of N7trn projects into 2025 budget

Former Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has decried the alleged insertion of about N7trillion worth of prolects into the 2025 budget, describing it as a distressing revelation.

On Tuesday, a civic-tech non-profit organisation, BudgIT, said it uncovered 11 122 projects worth N6.9 trillion inserted by the National Assembly into the budget.

The organisation promotes accountability and transparency in public spending in Nigeria.

Last December, President Bola Tinubu presented a budget of N49.7 trillion for the 2025 fiscal year to a joint session of the National Assembly. It is titled, “Budget of Restoration: Securing Peace, Rebuilding Prosperity.”

The National Assembly, however, increased the budget to N54.99 trillion while passing it.

The president signed it into law on 28 February.

In a statement posted on his X account on Wednesday, Mr Obi said the findings by BudgIT are deeply troubling and confirmed his long-held position that Nigeria has been turned into a crime scene.

The former governor of Anambra State said he was convinced that the uncovered figure represents only a fraction of the actual amount misappropriated.

“How else can we explain the distressing revelations by BudgIT, which uncovered a staggering N7 trillion in questionable projects inserted into the 2025 budget?

Join the Premium Times WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.

Open in WhatsApp

“I am convinced that this figure represents only a fraction of the actual amount misappropriated. These findings are deeply troubling and confirm my long-held position that we have turned our country into a crime,” Mr Obi said.

Read the full statement

Nigeria remains a relentless scene of corruption.

I have consistently maintained that for this country to make progress, Nigeria must cease to function as a crime scene and be repositioned for genuine development.

This entrenched corruption – persistent and deeply rooted – must be nipped in the bud if there is to be any meaningful turnaround.

How else can we explain the distressing revelations by BudgIT, which uncovered a staggering ₦7 trillion in questionable projects inserted into the 2025 national budget? I am convinced that this figure represents only a fraction of the actual amount misappropriated.

These findings are deeply troubling and confirm my long-held position that we have turned our country into a crime scene. We must urgently and aggressively combat corruption, misappropriation, and fiscal recklessness in order to manage our resources effectively and efficiently, and invest in critical areas of development: health, education, and lifting our people out of
poverty.

The ₦7 trillion uncovered as fraudulently inserted into the 2025 budget is even greater than the combined allocations to the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, and the Ministry of Agriculture – ministries that are fundamental to national development.

To be precise: •The Ministry of Education was allocated ₦3.52 trillion, •The Ministry of Health received ₦2.48 trillion, •The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation was allocated ₦260 billion, and •The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security received ₦636.08 billion.
Combined, these four ministries were allocated ₦6.896 trillion—an already inflated amount—yet still less than the ₦7 trillion dubiously inserted into the budget. That ₦7 trillion figure is even more than the ₦6.1 trillion allocated to national security—at a time when Nigeria is among the most terrorised nations in the world. This brazen impunity by our leaders is precisely why the country cannot invest adequately in education—hence the existence of nearly 20 million out-of-school children. It is the same corruption that has crippled primary healthcare, resulting in alarming levels of malnourished children.

We face widespread hunger, yet our leaders neglect agricultural investment due to persistent mismanagement and lack of accountability.

The same disregard affects our capacity to fund national security effectively, or to support Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which are vital to national growth.

These glaring acts of corruption reinforce my position: Nigeria has been reduced to a crime scene. We must confront this corruption, misappropriation, and fiscal recklessness with unwavering resolve.

Our national resources must be transparently managed and strategically invested in key sectors—health, education, and poverty alleviation—to secure a better future for our people. We must turn this nation around. A new Nigeria is POssible. -PO