Nigeria’s opposition figure Peter Obi has renewed his call for President Bola Tinubu to resign, citing the International Monetary Fund’s disclosure that public spending equivalent to about 2 percent of gross domestic product was not captured in the country’s budget, which he said raises concerns over fiscal transparency.
The renewed criticism follows remarks by the IMF’s resident representative in Nigeria, Christian Ebeke, who said last week that around 2 percent of GDP equivalent to about N8.8 trillion in government expenditure was undertaken outside the budget framework, making Nigeria’s fiscal deficit appear smaller than its actual financing needs.
In a statement issued on Sunday via X, Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), described the disclosure as evidence of what he called a pattern of “grand corruption” under the Tinubu administration.
“The IMF now reveals that about N8.83 trillion in expenditure undertaken in 2025 is not reflected in the budget. This expenditure is not budgeted and is therefore not under legislative oversight or administrative scrutiny. This is horrible,” Obi said.
He argued that the amount exceeds 35 percent of Nigeria’s N23.96 trillion capital expenditure budget for 2025 and is larger than the combined allocations for education and health.
