Our reporter/ The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday faulted the 2025 budget proposal presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, describing it as “unrealistic, opaque, and insincere.”
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, in a statement shortly after Tinubu’s presentation said the budget was anti-people, warning that its implementation would worsen insecurity, poverty, and despair across the nation.
Tinubu unveiled the N49.7 trillion 2025 budget proposal during a joint session of the National Assembly, allocating N4.91 trillion for defence and security, N4.06 trillion for infrastructure, N2.48 trillion for health, and N3.52 trillion for education.
But the opposition party criticised the budget presentation, alleging it was riddled with unverified economic figures and empty campaign promises.
“The N47.9 trillion 2025 federal budget is an anti-people proposal that, if implemented, will plunge the nation deeper into insecurity, poverty, and hopelessness,” the statement read.
PDP accused the Tinubu-led administration of failing to make meaningful investments in critical sectors such as agriculture, electricity, petroleum, and small and medium-scale enterprises.
It alleged the budget’s lack of clarity, particularly on capital and recurrent expenditure details and expressed dismay over the President’s claim of an 85% performance rate for the 2024 budget without a breakdown between capital and recurrent expenditures.
“The budget address was more of campaign rhetoric, filled with unsubstantiated economic statistics, false promises, and conjured performance claims. It lacked clear strategies to address insecurity, revive the economy, create jobs, and reduce the cost of living,” the statement continued.
The PDP also described as “ludicrous” Tinubu’s assertion that the 2025 budget would reduce inflation from 34.6% to 15% and improve the Naira’s exchange rate from N1,700 to N1,500 per dollar.
The main opposition party urged the National Assembly to reject the 2025 budget in its current form, invoking its constitutional powers to restructure the proposal to prioritise economic growth and citizens’ welfare.
“With a staggering N134.3 trillion debt and no tangible investment in the productive sector, these projections are nothing more than voodoo economics,” the PDP said.
“The National Assembly must ensure that the budget reflects the real needs of Nigerians by making provisions that are critical and pivotal to economic recovery and social stability,” the statement stated.
Meanwhile, a policy analyst, Basil Abia, has also described the projections of the 2025 budget proposal as unrealistic.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today hours after Tinubu’s budget presentation, Abia said it is impossible to reduce inflation to 15 per cent next year when crude oil production is below two million barrels per day.
“The projections are not realistic and the most important thing I think Nigerians should understand is what are the assumptions driving those projections. Now, if you say you want to do 15 per cent headline inflation rate on aggregate for 2025, the core drivers, you have to be able to show us that you are going to realistically drop down those drivers, reduce their efficacy, and their frequency.
“Unfortunately, you cannot do 15 per cent headline inflation rate when you are producing less than less than two million barrels per day. Now, I know they are projecting two million barrels per day, but it is impossible to do when you are currently producing 1.5 million barrels per day,” Abia said.
The President also said that the exchange rate will improve from approximately N1,700 per dollar to N1,500.
However, the Director General of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chijioke Ekechukwu, who also appeared on the programme, berated the President for giving the impression that he could not bring the exchange rate lower than N1,500.
“If you look at the projections made, first of all, I started getting worried when I saw that the exchange rate was projected at N1,500. That exchange rate is to tell Nigerians that there is nothing we plan to do that will bring the exchange rate lower because Nigerians are still thinking that probably that rate can still come lower than N1,500, maybe N1,000.
“There is a problem with that projection because you are dampening our hope of a reduction in the exchange rate. All you are telling us is, ‘Yes, the exchange rate is meant to remain here,” Ekechukwu said.
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