2025 Budget: CSO Blames Finance Minister, AGoF for Economic, Health Sector Collapse
A civil society group accuses top finance officials of sabotaging budget implementation, says non-release of funds crippled 2024–2025 performance
A leading pro-democracy and civil society organisation has accused the Minister of Finance, Mr. Wale Edun; the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite; and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGoF), Mr. Shamsedeen Babatunde Ogunjimi, of deliberately undermining budget implementation, resulting in the poor performance of the economy and key social sectors, particularly health.
The National Vanguard for Accountable and Transparent Democracy (NVATD) made the allegation on Tuesday during a protest at the National Assembly complex in Abuja.
Speaking on behalf of the group, NVATD Secretary-General, Dr. Harry Linus, said the actions and inactions of the finance authorities had “stampeded the good intentions” of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government to revive the economy and reposition the country’s ailing health sector.
According to Linus, the refusal to adequately fund capital projects contained in the 2024 Appropriation Act led to widespread setbacks across virtually all sectors of the economy and directly contributed to the non-performance of the 2025 budget.
He said public confidence in the ongoing consideration of the 2026 Appropriation Bill would have been significantly higher if the 2024 and 2025 budgets had shown meaningful results.
Linus was reacting to the public lamentation by the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, who on Monday disclosed that only N36 million was released to his ministry out of over N218 billion appropriated for the health sector in the 2025 budget.
“The two Ministers of Finance and the Accountant-General should be held responsible for the collapse of the economy. It is shameful that a sitting Minister of Health is openly lamenting budget non-performance caused by his colleagues,” Linus said.
He argued that failure to pay local contractors owed over N4 trillion for projects executed under the 2024 budget made it impossible to award or implement new projects under the 2025 Appropriation Act.
“If they had listened to Nigerians, the National Assembly, and even President Tinubu, and paid contractors for projects already executed and commissioned, the 2025 budget would have recorded massive performance and given credibility to the 2026 budget,” he added.
The group also called on the National Assembly to fast-track amendments to the Electoral Act and urged lawmakers not to approve budgetary allocations for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that failed to perform in the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years—except for critical sectors such as health, education and security.
Linus described Prof. Pate’s appearance before lawmakers as emotional, noting that the Health Minister “almost broke down in tears” while explaining how the health sector was starved of funds.
“One can only imagine the pain of a professional doctor who swore a Hippocratic oath to save lives but is being frustrated by the misconduct of colleagues,” he said.
He further linked the funding shortfalls to recurring industrial actions and the deterioration of public services across the country.
“That is why doctors go on strike, hospitals lack basic drugs, lecturers are threatening industrial action, and almost every sector is grounded,” Linus stated.
Prof. Pate, while defending his ministry’s budget before the House Committee on Healthcare Services, had attributed the poor capital budget performance to cash flow constraints and systemic bottlenecks in the Federal Government’s budget execution process.
He explained that while personnel costs for 2025 were fully released and utilised, capital funding suffered severe shortfalls due largely to the bottom-up cash planning system operated by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
The Health Minister added that Nigeria’s health sector operates within established policy frameworks, including Vision 20:2020, the Medium-Term National Development Plan 2021–2025, and the National Strategic Health Development Plan II.
