Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last election, has berated President Bola Tinubu’s administration over what he described an alarming case of corruption, following revelations that ₦7 trillion worth of dubious projects were smuggled into the 2025 national budget.
The former governor of Anambra State in a statement issued on Wednesday, May 21, said Nigeria has become a crime scene and it cannot move forward unless corruption is uprooted.
Recall that BudgIT recently revealed the fraudulent insertions, which exceed the entire combined budgets for four key ministries: Education (₦3.52 trillion), Health (₦2.48 trillion), Humanitarian Affairs (₦260 billion), and Agriculture (₦636.08 billion) — totaling ₦6.896 trillion.
Obi warned that the real scale of misappropriation likely surpasses ₦7 trillion, citing devastating impacts on education, healthcare, food security, and poverty alleviation.
He described the nearly 20 million out-of-school children, collapsing primary healthcare, rampant malnutrition, and a neglected agricultural sector as symptoms of systemic looting.
While calling for urgent reform and strict accountability, Obi stressed that national resources must be redirected to critical sectors to reverse the country’s decline.
The statement reads: “Nigeria remains a relentless scene of corruption.
“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.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
