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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has launched a blistering attack on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 2026 budget, dismissing the so-called “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity” as a hollow document that entrenches hardship while the ruling elite wallows in comfort.

In a sharply worded statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, the PDP said the budget is a cruel irony for millions of Nigerians battling hunger, soaring living costs, and deepening poverty under the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

According to the party, President Tinubu’s claim that the economy is stabilising rings false against the lived reality of citizens. While the President cited a 3.98 per cent GDP growth rate as proof of progress, the PDP countered that growth without impact is meaningless. Citing the 2025 World Bank Poverty and Equity Brief, the opposition noted that over 30.9 per cent of Nigerians still live below the international extreme poverty line.

“This is growth without prosperity,” the PDP said, arguing that whatever economic gains exist are captured by a privileged few, leaving the majority trapped in deprivation.

The party also faulted the President for celebrating the 3.98 per cent growth rate without disclosing the sectors driving it or the Nigerians benefitting from it. By contrast, the PDP recalled that Nigeria recorded a 6.87 per cent growth rate in 2013 under the last PDP-led federal government, driven largely by non-oil sectors such as agriculture and trade.

“Today, the government celebrates statistics while Nigerians endure excruciating hunger and a crushing cost of living,” the statement said.

On security, the PDP acknowledged the allocation in the 2026 budget but warned that funding without effective execution amounts to empty promises. It demanded transparency to ensure that security spending translates into modern equipment, improved intelligence, adequate ammunition, and better welfare for personnel fighting armed non-state actors who, it alleged, often appear better armed than government forces.

Perhaps most damning was the PDP’s criticism of what it described as fiscal recklessness and administrative confusion. The party expressed deep concern over President Tinubu’s admission that the 2024 capital budget had been extended to December 2025 while the 2025 budget remains in operation.

According to the PDP, this confirms longstanding concerns about the concurrent operation of multiple budgets—an abnormal practice that undermines fiscal discipline, transparency, and accountability.

“No two budgets should operate at the same time,” the party insisted, describing the situation as yet another “unprecedented negative feat” of the APC-led administration.

The PDP concluded by calling for urgent transparency and accountability in the management of Nigeria’s finances, warning that public trust cannot be built in an atmosphere of opaque spending and shifting fiscal goalposts.

For the opposition party, the verdict is clear: beneath the glossy theme and official rhetoric, the 2026 budget represents not shared prosperity, but the consolidation of suffering for ordinary Nigerians.