A lawmaker in the 7th National Assembly, Senator Ita Enang, has said President Bola Tinubu might be relying on projects of state government and All Progressives Congress (APC) Governors to justify his reelection in 2027 due to the low amounts allocated to critical economic sectors in 2025 budget.
Henzodaily recalls that on December 18, 2024, Tinubu presented the 2025 ₦49.7 trillion budget proposal before a joint session of the National Assembly for approval. The lawmakers will resume on February 4, 2025, after the ongoing defense of the proposed budget by ministries, departments, and agencies.
In an interview on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande on Channels Television, Enang criticized the 2025 proposed budget’s low revenue allocation, generation, and mobilization.
Enang, who served as Senior Special Assistant to former President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters, asserted that the 2025 Appropriation Bill, if passed by the legislature and signed into law by Tinubu, will not produce answers in the field of campaigns in 2026 and 2027.
He cited the Calabar-Ikot Ekpene, Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Lokoja-Benin, Abuja-Kaduna, and other highway projects, saying the monies allocated for them are not substantial enough to complete them within the budget cycle or calendar.
Enang said the president and his economic team should be strategic, prioritize milestone projects in their budgetary allocations, and provide deadlines and tentative commissioning dates for such projects.
He also urged Tinubu and his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, to take up the budget, which is still being worked on in the National Assembly.
He said, “I have read the budget and have gone through almost all the sectors. It is not reflective and it is incapable of giving Mr President projects to commission, which he can be proud of in 2026.
“The way it is, what we are having and defending at the National Assembly, if it is passed like that, it will give them a question to answer in the field of campaigns in 2026, 2027.
“I am saying that because of the minute allocations given to specific projects in certain ministries, they may not have much to show. Given the way some of the projects which they may need to exit or abandon due to low allocation, they may not be able to commission those projects.
“By the end of 2025, Mr president is supposed to go commission those projects but what will he commission (if they are uncompleted)?
“In most areas that we should show during the campaigns, we may not have what to show if we have this level of budgeting. That is why I am saying that Mr president’s team should go sectorally before they pass the budget and identify the presidential priorities.
“Tinubu and his COS should look at each of the ministries and say, ‘Look, this is what we want to deliver in solid minerals, this is what we want to deliver in works, these are two or three things we want to commission in each state, in each region. This is what we want to attain in railway. This is what we want to attain in water resources. This is what we want to report in agriculture. This is the milestone we want to record in education and then work towards that’.
“If we don’t do this, the president and the APC will be relying on the projects of states and governors to justify what they have done for APC to go for the next election.”