The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of prioritising campaign propaganda and political patronage over funding critical sectors such as security, healthcare and education.
The party’s National Campaign Council spokesperson, Dr Chiogo Constance Ikokwu, made the allegations in a statement issued on Sunday.
The opposition party alleged that the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, had spent heavily on political advertisements, gifts and other forms of patronage while the Federal Government struggled to adequately fund its 2024 and 2025 budgets.
It also questioned the funding of the 2026 budget, which it described as having gone into voicemail.
“The barrage of advertisements, donations, vehicles, laptops, sewing machines, food items and other forms of largesse distributed by various groups and individuals claiming to be standing on the mandate of Mr President raises serious concerns about the administration’s spending priorities,” Ikokwu said.
“How can a government with money from fuel subsidy removal, high taxation and new loan requests plead paucity of funds when it comes to national security, healthcare, education, federal roads and the welfare of ordinary Nigerians?” she asked.
The NDC spokesperson cited the reported release of only seven per cent of the Defence Capital Budget in 2025, despite the security challenges facing the country.
She also referred to a report by the Minister of Health that only N36 million was released out of the N218 billion allocated to health capital expenditure in the same year.
According to her, the figures raise questions about why the government appears to have more resources for political activities than for addressing the country’s development challenges.
Ikokwu further accused some state governments that recently joined the APC of following what she described as the Federal Government’s poor record of budget implementation while having enough resources for campaign publicity.
“The government’s misplaced priorities, poor governance and decaying infrastructure were contributing to the growing cases of political intimidation and violence aimed at discouraging voters from coming out to vote in the January 2027 elections.”
The party warned that political propaganda, patronage and intimidation would not prevent Nigerians from holding the government accountable for its performance.
The NDC therefore challenges the Tinubu administration to explain its budgetary priorities and provide verifiable figures showing how much was released for critical capital projects and government subventions in 2024, 2025 and 2026.
It also demanded an explanation of how much had been spent on political advertisements and patronage compared with funding for essential public services.