Following the revelation that over N6 trillion of dubious projects were inserted into the 2025 national budget, Mr Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), has castigated the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government over what he described as “dangerous and alarming case” of entrenched corruption.
The watchdog group BudgIT last week, 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 pointedly said that the country has become a crime scene, stressing that Nigeria cannot move forward unless the leadership stamp out this level of brazen impunity.
The former governor of Anambra State, said in a statement on Wednesday, noted that the real scale of misappropriation likely surpasses ₦7 trillion, stressing the devastating impacts such criminality has on education, healthcare, food security, and poverty alleviation.
Obi said; “This is more than the ₦6.1 trillion allocated to national security. And yet Nigeria remains one of the most terrorized nations in the world”.
The businessman turned politician, noted the nearly 20 million out-of-school children, collapsing primary healthcare, rampant malnutrition, and a neglected agricultural sector as symptoms of systemic looting.
He further said; “Our children are out of school, our hospitals are underfunded, and our people are hungry. Yet, trillions are being diverted with impunity. This must stop”.
Obi therefore demanded for urgent reforms and strict accountability, stressing that national resources must be redirected to critical sectors to reverse the country’s decline.
