Former presidential candidate in the 2023 presidential poll, Peter Obi, has excoriated the Nigerian government and its parliament over fiscal recklessness, brazen impunity and “entrenched corruption”.
“This brazen impunity by our leaders is precisely why the country cannot invest adequately in education—hence the existence of nearly 20 million out-of-school children. It is the same corruption that has crippled primary healthcare, resulting in alarming levels of malnourished children,” Mr Obi stated this on Wednesday while reacting to an allegation by BudgIT that the National Assembly inserted 11,122 projects valued at N6.93 trillion in the 2025 budget.
He added, “This entrenched corruption —persistent and deeply rooted —must be nipped in the bud if there is to be any meaningful turnaround. I have consistently maintained that for this country to make progress, Nigeria must cease to function as a crime scene and be repositioned for genuine development.”
Mr Obi described Nigeria as a relentless scene of corruption, stating that the mismanagement and fiscal recklessness stall the country’s investment in critical areas of development.
“How else can we explain the distressing revelations by BudgIT, which uncovered a staggering ₦7 trillion in questionable projects inserted into the 2025 national budget? I am convinced that this figure represents only a fraction of the actual amount misappropriated. These findings are deeply troubling and confirm my long-held position that we have turned our country into a crime scene.
“We must urgently and aggressively combat corruption, misappropriation, and fiscal recklessness in order to manage our resources effectively and efficiently, and invest in critical areas of development: health, education, and lifting our people out of poverty,” the former Anambra governor stated.
The Labour Party chieftain explained that the inserted figure, representing 12.5 per cent of the N54.99 trillion budget signed by President Bola Tinubu in February, was “even greater than the combined allocations to the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, and the Ministry of Agriculture —ministries that are fundamental to national development”.
“Combined, these four ministries were allocated ₦6.896 trillion—an already inflated amount—yet still less than the ₦7 trillion dubiously inserted into the budget,” Mr Obi noted. “That ₦7 trillion figure is even more than the ₦6.1 trillion allocated to national security—at a time when Nigeria is among the most terrorised nations in the world.”
Mr Obi stated that the government “must confront this corruption, misappropriation, and fiscal recklessness with unwavering resolve”, advising that “our national resources must be transparently managed and strategically invested in key sectors—health, education, and poverty alleviation—to secure a better future for our people. We must turn this nation around”.
“We face widespread hunger, yet our leaders neglect agricultural investment due to persistent mismanagement and lack of accountability,” the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party lamented. “The same disregard affects our capacity to fund national security effectively, or to support Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which are vital to national growth.”