If there is something Nigerians seem to agree with the government in the last three years, it’s the fact that the government, particularly subnational governments have more money for development projects. In all the 36 states and the FCT, the annual budgets have more than tripled from what they had in 2022. In 2022, Ekiti State’s total budget size was approximately N100.75 billion, passed around N100.8 billion, in 2025, it is approximately N375.79 billion; in 2022, the Akwa Ibom State’s approved budget was N586.881 billion, which was later revised upwards to N631.881 billion, and in 2025 the budget tripled to a total of N1.65 trillion, following the passage and signing of a N695 billion supplementary budget into law; in 2022, Zamafara State’s annual budget was approximately N159.5 billion, and N546 billion in 2025; while Enugu’s budget was approximately N186.64 billion in 2022, and it quantum leaped to a total of N971 billion in 2025.
Nigeria is experiencing a historic recurrence of resource curse and paradox of plenty. We are back to a revenue surge, like the early 1970s oil boom, when global crude oil prices surged and Nigeria suddenly accumulated massive foreign exchange and petrodollars following the end of the Nigerian Civil War. This time around, there are however, two main differences, first, the people are pushed to pay for the revenue surge; secondly, our current leaders are not as sincere as General Yakubu Gowon to confess it clearly, that “money isn’t Nigeria’s problem, but how to spend it”.
They are busy spending, all in the name of development, yet, one can hardly see any ostensible, measurable, globally comparable, and sustainable development in sight across almost all states and regions of our beloved country, except in few states.
The core problem of the paradox of plenty is the priority of spending and the desperate transactions surrounding such vested priorities. An objective analysis of our public finances from the N7.41 trillion gross allocation to states from January to August 2026, shows that 80 per cent of awarded contracts only reflect white elephant infrastructure projects that have distance impact on average citizens either in the short or long term, usually designed to siphon public funds. To a sane mind, it’s not hard to appreciate that awarding more in contract item line doesn’t mean more development outcomes, unless the contract performs to achieve the design and desired development impact, just the same way more public revenue does not amount to better publicgood or development, unless state resources are prudently allocated, utilised, managed and accounted for.
Last week, the European Union (EU) Ambassador to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Gautier Mignot, noted that Nigeria probably has the highest number of people living below the poverty threshold globally, describing poverty as one of the Nigeria’s biggest challenges, indicating that 133 million Nigerians were living in multidimensional poverty in 2022, with estimates from different sources suggesting that the situation had worsened since then.
The question remains, why are more Nigerians are sliding into extreme poverty when governments are budgeting more for development, including human capital development? The answer lies in the gap between Nigeria’s public revenue generation and efficient government allocations, expenditures and financing of development priorities. A government’s decision and action on how to raise, allocate and spend public resources and the ways the resources are utilized goes a long way in determining how its development goals are achieved. When contract corruption blurs this process, it creates a culture of corruption in public procurement and influences misallocation of procurement contracts, and annual budgets become a mere tool to enrich those entrusted to ensure efficient use of public funds for development.
It isn’t enough for states to enact subnational versions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act to mirror federal standards, all levels of government in Nigeria must adopt full performance budgeting that helps to strengthen our fiscal accountability and improve public spending efficiency, transition towards the International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) to facilitate better tracking of costs against outcomes, while MDAs must attach key performance metrics to their funding requests, and the legislature from the National Assembly to the Legislative Councils of the LGAs must entrench performance and priority based budgeting system in order to fully enforce outcomes-driven public spending.
Beyond the platitude of achieving a public budget and fiscal responsibility system that promotes prudent management of public resources, long-term macroeconomic stability, greater transparency and accountability in public finances, Nigeria faces a serious problem of citizens’ character crisis that is fuelling the corruption economy, and until it’s solved, Nigeria will continue to have bogus budgets and less development. You cannot strengthen fiscal responsibility institutions without strengthening the character of the human agency that powers the institutions, and the duty to sanitise the process starts from political leaders with the constitutional mandate to design and implement local, subnational and federal budgets. To compel political leadership for rational and responsible budgetary processes, our anti-graft agencies on economic and financial crimes must act with a rigorous and decisive independence, commitment to rule of law and conclusive prosecution of suspects without compromise.
If public sector budget will work for Nigerians, then Nigerians and organized CSOs must continue to play the critical role in promoting fiscal transparency, simplifying complex public budgets, and sustain citizen participation in government spending from the local government to the federal government. More so, with the aid of artificial intelligence (AI), public budget accountability must be improved by streamlining financial planning, real-time expenditure monitoring, and accountability across every stage of the fiscal cycle. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Ekpa, Stanley Ekpa, Lawyer and Leadership Consultant, wrote via [email protected]
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