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ADC slams Tinubu-led government over alleged fiscal recklessness
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₦712bn for Lagos Airport upgrade “unjustifiable” amid mass poverty
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Party demands project suspension, independent audit, and budget transparency
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has condemned in the strongest terms the ₦712 billion airport renovation project recently approved by President Bola Tinubu’s Federal Executive Council, describing it as reckless, insensitive, and a direct affront to the hardship currently experienced by most Nigerians.
In a blistering statement issued on Sunday and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC expressed disbelief at the federal government’s decision to approve such an “outrageous” expenditure at a time when the nation is facing a deepening crisis of hunger, poverty, and decaying public infrastructure.
“The African Democratic Congress strongly condemns the outrageous ₦712 billion airport renovation project announced by the Tinubu administration as another brazen act of fiscal recklessness and official insensitivity, which further confirms how far this APC government is removed from the reality of the suffering people of Nigeria,” the party said in a statement.
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According to Abdullahi, the airport in question — the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos — already underwent extensive upgrades in recent years, including the commissioning of a new international terminal by former President Muhammadu Buhari in March 2022, making the new renovation plan unjustifiable and wasteful.
“It is hard to understand how expending ₦712 billion into renovating an airport that already received significant upgrades in recent years makes fiscal sense in a country where public universities wallow in chronic austerity, where basic medical care has become a luxury only the rich can afford, and where millions have been thrown into poverty as a result of the government’s ill-conceived policies,” the statement said.
The ADC pointed out that the same airport was fitted just three years ago with a censored conveyor belt, seven jet bridges, ten advanced cooling systems, and a 22-room hotel, adding that the existing structure already has the capacity to process 14 million passengers per annum but served only 6.5 million passengers in 2024 — less than half of its capacity.
It questioned whether the Tinubu administration is spending such a monumental sum to fix an already functional terminal, or whether the previous government deceived Nigerians about the scope of the upgrades it claimed to have completed.
“We therefore wonder if it is this same airport that is now scheduled for renovation or another one. The inescapable conclusion is either that the previous APC government had lied to Nigerians about what it did with the Lagos Airport, or the current government is about to spend such a huge amount of money on a project that already exists,” Abdullahi added.
More troubling for the party, however, is the alleged lack of National Assembly authorisation or budgetary backing for the massive expenditure. The party said there had been no clear public procurement process, no national debate, and no official breakdown of how the ₦712 billion would be spent.
“Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that this massive expenditure—approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on July 31, 2025—has not received any backing from the National Assembly, and it is not in any of the approved budgets,” the ADC said.
“Is this now how the government spends close to a trillion naira—without appropriation, without scrutiny, and without the consent of the Nigerian people through their elected representatives? We demand to know: under what constitutional provision is this money being spent?”
The party warned that such opaque and excessive spending, coming at a time when hunger, job losses, and insecurity plague Nigerian households, could destroy the fragile trust Nigerians still have in their government.
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“Let us be clear, ₦712 billion could instead deliver transformative impact by building over seven fully equipped teaching hospitals, funding free basic education across three geopolitical zones for five years, providing rural electrification to thousands of communities, or rehabilitating thousands of kilometres of federal roads and bridges,” it stated.
The ADC called for the immediate suspension of the project and demanded a full independent audit of the proposed budget. It further urged the Tinubu administration to redirect the funds toward critical national priorities that would directly improve the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
“Reckless spending in the face of hunger, hardship, and insecurity will only deepen the disconnect between the government and the governed,” the statement warned.
