Nigeria: ActionAid urges Tinubu and governors to cut prestige spending in favour of education and health

Nigeria has been facing a budgetary crisis for several years, marked by declining oil revenues, the devaluation of the naira, and soaring debt service, which absorbs an increasing share of federal and state budgets. In this context, criticism of government spending habits frequently returns to public debate, even as education and health indicators remain fragile despite the country's demographic weight. It is against this backdrop that ActionAid Nigeria, an anti-poverty NGO, is publicly calling on President Bola Tinubu and the governors of the 36 states. According to ThisDay, reported by AllAfrica on August 3, the organisation is urging that public spending be redirected away from "prestige projects" and "excessive government luxury" toward investments with a direct impact on the lives of Nigerians, particularly in education and health. This appeal comes as the federal government and states prepare their budgets, an exercise that determines the funding for schools, hospitals, and social infrastructure upon which millions of citizens depend. Fundamentally, this debate opposes internal governance—political trade-offs and elected officials' priorities—with external structural constraints: oil volatility and the burden of debt, which limit fiscal space regardless of who is in power. The source specifies neither amounts nor targeted projects, calling for caution regarding the actual scale of the sums involved.