My fellow countrymen and women are surely in for a very rough ride along a very rough, bad road that leads to nowhere through a wilderness created and sustained by politicians and civil servants. You might like to ask why I’m writing this, or what led me to this conclusion. You see, sometime last year, I sat with some friends to enjoy a quiet time during a weekend.
As is usual, discussions began about the way our lives were and are still running, driven, as it were, by insincere politicians and civil servants who mean no good. One of my friends opined that the average Nigerian, being the hardworking type who will never say die in any situation, will ultimately achieve his/her ambitions and live a good life, but, in a country that may never do well.
I asked him to explain further. He said that given the way members of the power elite, elected or appointed, carry on, he had nursed deep fears about the country doing well anytime soon. That sent me into a spell of silence. My friend may well be correct in his assumptions. Remember that last year, President Bola Tinubu presented the N58.18 trillion 2026 Budget on December 19, 2025, to the National Assembly, and said that the budget focuses on macroeconomic stability, job creation, and human capital, adding that it is anchored on realistic revenue projections (N34.33 trillion) and a significant deficit (N23.85 trillion) to fund capital projects like infrastructure, emphasizing fiscal discipline, debt management, and continued economic reforms for shared prosperity.
You may also recall that at the time Budget 2026 was being presented, the 2024 and 2025 budgets were still in various stages of implementation. Eventually, the Federal Government is rolling over about 70% of the 2025 capital budget into 2026, with a directive for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, MDAs, to focus on completing existing projects rather than starting new ones, aiming to end budget cycle overlaps by March 2026 with new legislation. This move, driven by weak revenues, extends the 2024 budget’s implementation, formalises the carryover, and prioritises capital projects.
This development, to me, is simply an absurdity. It indicates indiscipline, sloth and incompetence in the management of public affairs. When budget objectives cannot be realised to the extent that three budgets are being implemented at the same time, my friend’s assumptions become situated in stark relief. This is because items listed for implementation, rhetorically calibrated to make life easier for the average Nigerian do not get actualised. There is motion, but no movement.
I also believe it is high time the ordinary Nigerian took more interest in the budget document itself. Details of the budget, called the Appropriation Bill, coming into the public space is riddled with absurdities and misplaced priorities.
One is that the Federal Ministry of Works voted over N500m for hairdressers, make-up artists, and supply of grinding machines, motorcycles, mini-vans and anti-drug abuse sensitisation/ advocacy in selected states of the federation.
Details of the proposed expenditure are contained in the 2026 Appropriation Bill uploaded on the Budget Office website. Under the budget item with code number: ERGP 12234747, the ministry is proposing to supply a yet to be determined number of grinding machines to Women in Ndokwa/ Ukwani Federal Constituency (South South), with the sum of N35m. If I can ask, what concerns the Works Ministry with hairdressers and make-up artists? Isn’t that for the Ministry of Women Affairs?
The ministry is also to spend N70 million on the supply of mini pick-up vans, mini shuttle buses and motorcycles to constituents in Abakaliki Federal Constituency in Ebonyi State (South-East).
Another one, equally absurd, if not worse, is that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is to construct motor parks, kings’ palaces, town halls, and supply motorcycles to unemployed youths. In addition, there is an ongoing Renewed Hope Initiative allocated the sum of N3.500 billion. I invite readers to visit the website of the Budget Office and see details of appropriations uploaded. When the Agric Ministry is constructing motor parks and kings’ palaces and town halls, we can now understand why hunger in the land is becoming famine.
If the Works Ministry also voted more than N500 million for hairdressers and make-up artists, we can see why our roads have become, and will remain death traps. However, my own inferences are that these overhead expenditures, for which huge sums have been allocated, will not just not be actualised, but the funds will leave the exchequer and find their ways to pre-determined destinations. And the National Assembly, every year, passes budgets like these with no questions raised. Can we all see why our country is mired in muck?
2026 Budget: Works Ministry proposes over ₦500m for hairdressers, make-up artists, grinding machines
The president and some of his aides are in the United Arab Emirates, attending that country’s Sustainability Week. Where is Nigeria’s sustainability? Indeed, what are we sustaining here if not sloth, incompetence and corruption? With budgets like these, and implementation being the way it is, no real progress can be made, except if celestial beings descend to run the government. And they will not come as we are not the only country on earth. A new approach to budgeting with seriousness is needed if we are to exit the mire we are in. And that is another grind. TGIF.
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