By Kingston Magare 5.6.2027
Nigeria’s minister of finance Taiwo Oyedele Sunday denied International Monetary Fund’s remarks that the government spent over N8 trillion outside approved budget.
The IMF resident representative in Nigeria Christian Ebeke made the remark claiming that the President Bola Tinubu administration failed to record public spending equivalent to about two per cent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in recent official budgets.
But according to Oyedele, all Federal Government spending is backed by duly enacted Appropriation Acts, Supplementary Appropriation Acts or other statutory authorisations approved by the National Assembly.
“These are recognised features of public financial management and should not be misconstrued as expenditures outside the budget,” Oyedele said.
“To be meaningful, assertions of this magnitude must be supported by verifiable facts rather than conjecture.
“For the purpose of public education, it is important to distinguish between appropriation, expenditure authorisation, financing and fiscal reporting.”
Oyedele also rejected claims that the reported amount represented an increase in Nigeria’s budget deficit.
“A fiscal deficit is determined by the relationship between total government revenues and total government expenditures. Whether a capital project is financed through annual appropriations, supplementary appropriations, statutory transfers, approved intervention mechanisms or other lawful financing arrangements does not, by itself, increase the fiscal deficit,” he said.
Meanwhile Africa Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, and his Nigeria Democratic Congress counterpart Peter Obi have asked President Bola Tinubu to resign following the revelations.
“A few days ago, I called on President Tinubu to resign from office for incompetence, lack of capacity, lack of compassion, and failure to improve on his campaign promises. Some people thought perhaps the call was excessive,” Obi stated.
“We have a lot to worry about regarding the state of corruption under President Tinubu. The sort of corruption that is ingrained in total disregard of elementary rules of public finance management poses a grave danger to national security and the stability of the Nigerian state.
“The capture of the Nigerian state and the plunder of its resources are actions that undermine the basis of state stability and deepen poverty and state failure.”
Atiku on his path said it was a constitutional, legal and moral scandal.
“This is no longer an accounting discrepancy. It is a constitutional, legal and moral scandal. Money does not simply disappear from a national budget. Somebody authorised it. Somebody approved it. Somebody spent it. Somebody benefited from it. Nigerians deserve to know who those people are.
“The question before the nation remains simple and unavoidable: Who stole the missing two per cent of Nigeria’s GDP? Until that question is honestly answered, every claim of transparency by this administration will ring hollow,” Atiku stated.
Tinubu...under scrutiny.