N6.93trn budget padding: Nigeria remains a relentless scene of corruption – Obi

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, on Wednesday, decried the findings by BudgIT that N6.93 trillion was inserted into the 2025 budget, indicating budget padding by state actors at the centre.

He lamented the magnitude of corruption in the country, advocating that Nigeria must cease to function as a crime scene to make progress.

Obi in a statement on Wednesday declared @PeterObi

“I have consistently maintained that for this country to make progress, Nigeria must cease to function as a crime scene and be repositioned for genuine development.

“This entrenched corruption – persistent and deeply rooted – must be nipped in the bud if there is to be any meaningful turnaround.

“How else can we explain the distressing revelations by BudgIT, which uncovered a staggering ₦7 trillion in questionable projects inserted into the 2025 national budget? I am convinced that this figure represents only a fraction of the actual amount misappropriated.

“These findings are deeply troubling and confirm my long-held position that we have turned our country into a crime scene. We must urgently and aggressively combat corruption, misappropriation, and fiscal recklessness in order to manage our resources effectively and efficiently, and invest in critical areas of development: health, education, and lifting our people out of poverty.

“The ₦7 trillion uncovered as fraudulently inserted into the 2025 budget is even greater than the combined allocations to the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, and the Ministry of Agriculture – ministries that are fundamental to national development.”

Obi highlighted: “To be precise:

• The Ministry of Education was allocated ₦3.52 trillion,
• The Ministry of Health received ₦2.48 trillion,
• The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation was allocated ₦260 billion, and
• The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security received ₦636.08 billion.

“Combined, these four ministries were allocated ₦6.896 trillion—an already inflated amount—yet still less than the ₦7 trillion dubiously inserted into the budget.”

Obi, accordingly argued, “that ₦7 trillion figure is even more than the ₦6.1 trillion allocated to national security—at a time when Nigeria is among the most terrorised nations in the world.

“This brazen impunity by our leaders is precisely why the country cannot invest adequately in education—hence the existence of nearly 20 million out-of-school children. It is the same corruption that has crippled primary healthcare, resulting in alarming levels of malnourished children. We face widespread hunger, yet our leaders neglect agricultural investment due to persistent mismanagement and lack of accountability. The same disregard affects our capacity to fund national security effectively, or to support Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), which are vital to national growth.”

He further declared:  “These glaring acts of corruption reinforce my position: Nigeria has been reduced to a crime scene.

“We must confront this corruption, misappropriation, and fiscal recklessness with unwavering resolve. Our national resources must be transparently managed and strategically invested in key sectors—health, education, and poverty alleviation—to secure a better future for our people. We must turn this nation around.

“A new Nigeria is POssible. –PO”