The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has warned that the 2026 budget proposal represents not reform or recovery but the institutionalisation of suffering under the guise of macroeconomic statistics, accusing President Bola Tinubu’s administration of deepening economic hardship and fiscal disorder.
In a press statement released on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, the opposition party dismissed the President’s “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity” as a public relations exercise disconnected from economic realities faced by most Nigerians.
Recall that Tinubu, while presenting the 2026 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly, cited a 3.98 per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate as proof of economic stabilisation. The PDP countered that the figure reflects growth without distribution and stability without welfare — a pattern it said has defined the administration’s economic management.
According to the party, headline growth numbers have failed to arrest worsening poverty, hunger, and rising living costs. It referenced the 2025 World Bank Poverty and Equity Brief, which estimates that over 30.9 per cent of Nigerians live below the international extreme poverty line, arguing that this exposes the hollowness of official optimism.
The PDP further criticised the government for failing to disclose the sectors driving the reported growth or identify beneficiaries, noting that growth without transparency raises serious questions about inclusiveness and sustainability. It contrasted the current performance with the 6.87 percent growth recorded in 2013 under the last PDP-led federal government, which it said was driven by productive non-oil sectors, such as agriculture and trade, rather than consumption shocks and fiscal improvisation.
“Celebrating a 3.98 per cent growth rate amid record hunger, inflationary pressure, and collapsing purchasing power amounts to governing by abstraction,” the party said.
On security, the PDP acknowledged the increased budgetary allocation but warned that security spending without reform, oversight, and execution has become a recurring failure of the Tinubu administration. It argued that budgetary figures have not translated into battlefield advantage, improved intelligence, or adequate welfare for personnel, even as criminal non-state actors reportedly possess superior weaponry in several theatres of conflict.
More troubling, the PDP said, was President Tinubu’s admission that the execution of the 2024 capital budget had been extended to December 2025 while the 2025 budget remains active. The party described this as confirmation of fiscal drift and administrative confusion, warning that the concurrent operation of multiple budgets violates basic principles of public finance.
According to the opposition, overlapping budgets undermine transparency, weaken accountability, and blur responsibility, creating conditions for inefficiency and abuse. It described the practice as unprecedented in scale and symptomatic of an administration struggling to impose discipline on its own economic architecture.
The PDP concluded by calling for urgent restoration of fiscal credibility, transparency, and accountability, warning that continued reliance on optimistic rhetoric without measurable outcomes risks further eroding public trust.
“Economic governance cannot be sustained on slogans and statistical comfort while citizens bear the cost of policy failure,” the statement said.
- Tinubu’s 2026 Budget Masks Hardship, Signals Fiscal Drift, PDP Says - December 21, 2025
- PDP Says Tinubu’s Budget Consolidated Renewed Sufferings For Nigerians - December 19, 2025
- 2026 Budget: Tinubu Pegs Revenue At ₦34.33Trn, Expenditure At ₦58.18Trn - December 19, 2025