The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has slammed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, describing his administration as the most incompetent in Nigeria’s history. The party pointed to the government’s failure to implement budgets and policies properly, as well as constant changes in appointments.
The opposition also accused the Tinubu-led APC government of extreme inefficiency, highlighting ongoing fiscal confusion that has left Nigeria running three national budgets at once, yet effectively executing none of them.
Earlier, Senator Abdul Ningi had criticized the administration for operating multiple budgets, while Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo warned that such a system makes accountability and auditing nearly impossible.
While Senator Ningi was suspended for six months for speaking out, Dankwabo, a former Accountant General of the Federation and ex-Governor of Gombe State, was largely ignored.
In a statement from its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said the government’s focus on re-election politics over proper governance has caused damage to the country on a scale not seen before.
The party said: “The ADC has noted recent reports that signify utter confusion and a historic level of incompetence in the Tinubu administration’s implementation of national budgets since 2024. This is the first time in Nigerian history that any government would be running three budgets at the same time while implementing none.
“Available reports indicate that while the 2024 budget was rolled over to 2025, as at the third quarter of 2025, only 17.7 per cent of the capital budget had been released, while overall implementation hovered at less than 30 per cent, even as internal disbursements continued to lag.
“Government has argued that this absurdity is a ‘deliberate strategy’ and ‘transition cost’ to ensure that multi-year capital projects are completed. This is a blatant falsehood that cannot hold up to any scrutiny.
“Even as we speak, 30 per cent of the 2025 budget is billed to run from February 2026 to November 30, 2026, while the remaining 70 per cent is simply rolled over to the 2026 budget, which is still being debated at the National Assembly three months into the year. This situation becomes even more alarming when we recall that President Tinubu promised last year that all capital components of the 2024 and 2025 budgets would be concluded by March 31, 2026, less than a month away, knowing quite well that this is not possible.
“As of today, capital budget implementation for the Ministry of Power stands at a mere 3.6 per cent, that of Communications Technology at 8.9 per cent, while Education and Health stand at 23.5 per cent and 32.5 per cent respectively. Certainly, no serious government would leave these sectors, which are crucial to national human capital development, largely unfunded while select government officials continue to live in obscene opulence in the midst of unprecedented poverty and human misery.”
The ADC added: “It is noteworthy that the only ministry that has outperformed its budget, up to 113.45 per cent, is the Ministry of Defence, largely due to emergency funding through the inscrutable Service-Wide Vote. Yet, rather than abate, insecurity has continued to spread across the country.”
The party said reports show that during this Ramadan alone, up to 500 Nigerians may have been killed by terrorists in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, and Kebbi.
“Government has continued to boast of historic revenue collection and unprecedented foreign reserve balances. This government has borrowed more aggressively than any other government in the country’s history. Yet, budgets remain unimplemented, and contractors remain unpaid.
“This is the reason Nigerians are suffering like never before and asking the most important questions: what is this government doing with all the money that accrues from all the loans, all the revenues, and all the increased taxes? Why are we worse off today than we were three years ago?
“Since this government came on board, analysts have identified at least seven appointments and several policy decisions that the government has announced and reversed either almost immediately or after public uproar. This is what happens when a government is distracted.
“The Tinubu government has proven that to them, everything is about politics and power for its own sake. This is why Nigerians are being slaughtered at an industrial scale across the country while the government feasts. This is why, despite all the propaganda of having performed wonders, Nigeria still holds the ignoble position of having the highest number of people in the world living in extreme poverty, with at least six out of every ten Nigerians unable to feed themselves.
“Yet what we see is a government that continues to gloat over its ‘victory’ in the FCT election and obsess over ADC online membership registration.”
