Who Is Watching the Budget?
Who is watching the budget? The case for community-led accountability.
Somewhere within your local government area, there is a project that exists only on paper.
It has a name, a budget allocation, and maybe even a commissioning date buried in a government document.
Yet if you go looking for it on the ground, you may find nothing.
No road. No borehole. No health centre.
Only land that has no idea it was ever budgeted for.
This is not a new Nigerian story.
What is new is that we now have the numbers to describe it with uncomfortable clarity.
Capital Execution and Its Consequences
Nigeria’s 2025 budget of N54.99 trillion was celebrated as the largest in the country’s history.
But by early 2025, capital execution stood at just 26 percent, with nearly 70 percent of projects rolled over.
The consequences are visible across Nigeria: stalled infrastructure, rising living costs, and shrinking opportunities that trap millions in poverty.
In plain terms, the government planned to build projects, secured the authority to spend public funds, and then failed to deliver most of them.
Roads crumble, power supply remains unreliable, and healthcare is inadequate, leaving communities isolated and vulnerable.
Gaps and Corruption in the Budget
BudgIT found that the National Assembly inserted thousands of projects worth N6.9 trillion into the 2025 budget without proper justification or alignment with national development goals.
These insertions create large deficits, reducing funds available for critical capital spending.
Effects on Infrastructure and Communities
In such an environment, corruption thrives. Resources are diverted into unviable constituency projects while essential infrastructure is neglected. Public trust erodes as a result.
These are not allegations from political opponents. They are verified findings from a credible, independent organisation doing the oversight work that government institutions are meant to perform.
Government Funding and the Supreme Court Ruling
On July 11, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that state governments cannot retain or control funds meant for local councils.
It ordered that allocations from the Federation Account should go directly to local governments, as in Section 162 of the Constitution.
A year after the ruling, funds continued to pass through state governments amid disputes between the Central Bank, state authorities, local councils, and other relevant agencies.
Analysis showed that 36 state governors received N4.5 trillion in local government allocations during that period.
President Tinubu addressed the issue publicly at the APC National Executive Committee meeting in December 2025:
- “The Supreme Court has said, give them their money directly. If you wait for my Executive Order, because I have the knife, I have the yam, I will cut it.”
He urged the media to extend scrutiny to states and local governments:
- “We’ve opened up the principle of federalism to the extent that local governments are now getting their money. But how they use it is in your hands.”
Why Communities Must Watch the Budget
The gap between a Supreme Court ruling, a presidential directive, and actual delivery at the community level is why citizen-led budget accountability in Nigeria is not a civic luxury; it’s a practical necessity.
Formal oversight has not closed this gap.
Nigeria’s budgeting problems stem from weak discipline, overly optimistic planning, and limited accountability.
Unless these root issues are addressed, budgets will continue to look good on paper while failing in practice.
BudgIT deploys field investigators across 33 states to determine whether government projects are actually being built as claimed.
This approach produces evidence. It forces governments to answer uncomfortable questions, which is exactly what meaningful accountability requires.
Scaling this effort doesn’t require more technology; it requires an organized, persistent human presence in communities ready to ask questions and refuse to accept silence as an answer.
ST Tamandu Marine Patrol and Community Accountability
Accountability Begins at the Community Level
ST Tamandu Marine Patrol believes accountability starts where people live, not in Abuja, not in committee rooms, but at the locations where a borehole was promised but never built or a school budgeted for renovation remains unspent.
The communities we serve in Lagos deserve to know:
- What was allocated to them
- The Amount that was actually spent
- Who is responsible for the difference
We aim to make this information accessible and to support organized citizen oversight that turns knowledge into action.
The budget is public money. Public money belongs to the public. The public is long overdue to begin acting like it.
