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“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,” Enang said on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

On December 18, 2024, Tinubu presented the 2025 ₦49.7tn budget proposal before a joint session of the National Assembly for approval. The lawmakers are to resume on February 4, 2025, after the ongoing defense of the proposed budget by ministries, departments, and agencies.

Enang, who served as Senior Special Assistant to then-President Muhammadu Buhari on National Assembly Matters, faulted what he described as low revenue allocation, low revenue generation, and low revenue mobilisation in the 2025 proposed budget.

The chieftain of the president’s party, the ruling All Progressives Congress, said the 2025 Appropriation Bill if passed by the legislature and signed into law by the president without major adjustments, can’t deliver sectoral fulfillment. He said if passed the way it is, it will become a problem for Tinubu’s reelection.

“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 certain 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,” he said.

He cited the Calabar-Ikot Ekpene, Lagos-Ibadan, Abuja-Lokoja-Benin, Abuja-Kaduna, and other highway projects, saying the monies allocated for the projects are not substantial enough to get them completed within the budget cycle or calendar.

“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,” he said.

Enang said the president and his economic team should be strategic and give priorities to milestone projects in their budgetary allocations, as well as give deadlines and tentative commissioning dates for such projects.

The lawyer urged the president and his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, to take up the budget which is still being worked on in the National Assembly, and “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,” the lawyer said.

Last December, the National Assembly extended the implementation of the 2024 N28.7tn Budget by six months, saying it has achieved a 50% performance rate in capital expenditure and 48% in recurrent expenditure.

Nigeria is said to be running multiple appropriation and supplementary budgets concurrently, according to a civic and accountability group BudgIT.

Leobankx:
To show who, Nigerians?

Which project did Buhari show Nigerians to win a second term?

Leobankx:
To show who, Nigerians?

Which project did Buhari show Nigerians to win a second term?

gare:
Must you always defend wrongdoing? Should they continue to run the government in such a manner, with all the funds allocated, yet no accountability or visible impact on how the money is being spent?

gidgiddy:
Buhari had one advantage, he had the North solidly behind him

In the case of Tinubu, he can't even boast of having the South solidly behind him

Leobankx:
To show who, Nigerians?

Which project did Buhari show Nigerians to win a second term?

gidgiddy:
Buhari had one advantage, he had the North solidly behind him

In the case of Tinubu, he can't even boast of having the South solidly behind him

ObosiLandlord:
I remember when you Obidients were saying Tinubu will never win the 2023 presidential election. Tinubu will rule Nigeria till 2031

Bobloco:
He will show Nigerians the 'bolekaja' economic policy prescriptions he has implemented so far, which have inflicted untold hardships, hunger, and starvation on them.

gidgiddy:
Well, you may find out that the support Tinubu had from the North in 2023, may no longer be there come 2027

sapele914:
Like I warned u in 2023, yet like a sheep you still followed Gringory Obi, today u are still wailing, come 2027 u will wail more profusely.

TimeManager:
This expired lawmaker should go and sit down. The budget will be approved later this month or early next month and contractors will start getting the money to mobilize. Even at that, projects are still ongoing everywhere. Tinubu is not a noise maker, he makes things happen.


-Kiss the truth!