ActionAid Nigeria has challenged the Federal and State Governments to rethink how public funds are spent, arguing that Nigeria’s development crisis is driven less by a shortage of resources than by misplaced budget priorities.
The organisation said governments must shift spending away from luxury, prestige projects and bloated official expenses toward investments that directly improve citizens’ lives, insisting that every naira should produce measurable social impact at a time millions of Nigerians are battling economic hardship.
The position followed President Bola Tinubu’s recent call on governors to stop constructing unnecessary flyovers in areas without traffic congestion and instead focus on projects that address the real needs of the people.
In a statement on Monday, ActionAid Nigeria’s Country Director, Dr. Andrew Mamedu, said the President’s remarks should trigger a wider national conversation on whether public budgets truly reflect the country’s development priorities.
According to him, quality education, primary healthcare, water and sanitation, food security, climate resilience and social protection should take precedence over projects designed mainly for political visibility.
“The real test of governance is not the number of monuments built but the number of lives transformed,” the organisation said, warning that public budgets should serve citizens rather than government luxury.
ActionAid argued that Nigeria’s challenge is not simply reducing expenditure but changing spending priorities, noting that unnecessary luxury purchases, excessive official travel and oversized government delegations divert scarce resources from essential services.
It cited figures from the Budget Office showing that President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima are proposed to receive a combined ₦9.36 billion in the 2026 budget for local and foreign travel, food and refreshments, while noting that the figure excludes expenses captured under other government agencies for accompanying officials and operational support.
The organisation estimated that cutting the allocation by half would free about ₦4.68 billion, enough to fund approximately 62 three-classroom school blocks, 208 solar-powered boreholes and five fully equipped primary healthcare centres, based on prevailing government project costs.
ActionAid further called for greater transparency in discretionary spending, including security votes, arguing that opaque expenditures weaken public trust.
“Every prestige project that fails to address citizens’ needs represents another missed opportunity to reduce poverty and inequality. Public budgets are moral documents. They reveal whose interests governments choose to protect,” the statement said.
The organisation urged governments at all levels to reduce the cost of governance, strengthen accountability in public spending, base infrastructure decisions on evidence and community needs, and expand citizen participation in budget planning and monitoring.