N54.9tn budget: Nigeria has returned to ‘miracle budgeting’ – Joe Abah

A former Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Joe Abah, has thrown his support behind the World Bank questioning the Federal Government’s 2025 budget.

Abah said that the World Bank rightly challenged the realism of the nation’s N54.9tn 2025 budget.

According to him, Nigeria has clearly returned to “miracle budgeting”, which it has previously away from its practice.

Abah made his view known on Tuesday in a series of post on X.

The statement comes amid the World Bank’s description of Nigeria’s 2025 federal budget as overly ambitious.

The world’s financial institution had warned that the Federal Government may be forced to turn to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Ways and Means facility to finance likely revenue shortfalls.

DAILY POST reported that President Bola Tinubu signed the 2025 Appropriation Act into law, approving a record budget of N54.99tn, the highest in Nigeria’s history.

The budget was raised from the initial proposal of N49.7tn submitted to the National Assembly.

However, speaking about the matter, Abah
questioned how the nation want to move to 2.1m bpd overnight when oil production rate is 1.6m bpd.

He noted that the above assumptions are in the realm of what is called ‘miracle budgeting,’ warning that Nigeria should not go back to it.

He said: “We had moved away from this practice of miracle budgeting but it has clearly returned. Oil production rate is 1.6m bpd but you want to move to 2.1m bpd overnight. How, other than through a miracle? | N54.9tn budget: FG, W’Bank at odds over funding strategy.”

“The World Bank @WBG_Nigeria, rightly, challenged the realism of the Federal Government’s 2025 budget. Particularly, the budget assumes oil production of 2.1 million bpd in 2025 when we only produced 1.6 million bpd in 2024, same as recent years. It also assumes an oil price $75 pb and inflation dropping from 24% to 15% overnight.

“These assumptions are in the realm of what we call ‘miracle budgeting.’ It’s not very different from some charlatan asking you to hold up your phone to receive a ‘miracle alert.’

“We had moved away from this practice through robust reforms of our budgeting system. We should not go back to it.

“Let me tell you why unrealistic budgeting is bad…

“Actually, Twitter is not the right audience. Let me write an article for a newspaper instead. Those that politicise and find an ethnic angle to everything don’t read newspapers.”

N54.9tn budget: Nigeria has returned to ‘miracle budgeting’ – Joe Abah