Get Guardian on Google***Says only ₦36m of ₦218bn health capital funds, 7% of defence capital were released in 2025
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has challenged the Tinubu administration to explain an alleged gap between funding for public services and spending on political publicity and patronage.
It also accused his camp of splashing cash on propaganda while hospitals, barracks and roads go unfunded.
In a statement, the party said the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s “enormous expenditure” on political advertising and largesse may explain why the 2024 and 2025 budgets were not adequately funded, and why the 2026 budget has “gone into voice mail.”
The NDC National Campaign Spokesperson, Dr. Chiogo Constance Ikokwu, said the evidence is all around. Nigerians are being hit with a barrage of advertisements and a flood of gifts, including vehicles, laptops, sewing machines and food items, handed out by groups and individuals claiming to stand on the President’s mandate. “We cannot help but draw an unsettling conclusion about the administration’s spending priorities,” she said.
Then came the numbers. Despite what she called the “palpable insecurity confronting the nation,” only about 7 per cent of the Defence Capital Budget was reportedly released in 2025. Even more troubling, she said, the Minister of Health reported that just ₦36 million of the ₦218 billion allocated to Health Capital expenditure was released in the same year.
Ikokwu asked how a government that has enjoyed fuel subsidy savings, high taxation and new loan requests can still plead lack of funds for security, healthcare, education, federal roads and the welfare of ordinary Nigerians, yet find “humongous” sums for campaign publicity and political patronage.
The problem, she said, is not limited to Abuja. “Most State Governments, especially those coerced into APC, have scant records of budget funding like their master, but have surplus for campaign propaganda.”
The NDC tied what it called the government’s “gross misplacement of priorities” to decaying infrastructure and poor governance. It said this is why the country is seeing rising political intimidation and violence, meant to frighten voters away from the polls in the January 2027 elections.
“No amount of propaganda, political patronage or intimidation can permanently conceal the consequences of poor governance,” the party warned.
It promised that an Obi/Kwankwaso administration would be accountable, fund public services and move the country “from consumption to production.”
Then the NDC threw down the gauntlet. It challenged the Tinubu administration to explain its budget priorities and prove, with verifiable figures, how much has actually been released for critical capital projects and administrative subventions in 2024, 2025 and 2026, compared with what has been spent on political publicity and patronage.
As of the time of filing this report, the Presidency and the APC had not responded to the allegations.
