A Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Funso Doherty, has raised the alarm over an alleged ₦400 billion misstatement in Lagos State’s 2026 budget.
Doherty, a governorship aspirant in Lagos State, flagged this in an open letter. ‘Re: Lagos State Government’s 2026 Proposed Budget’, dated Thursday, December 11, 2025, and reportedly addressed to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly.
He asserted that the budget presented to the lawmakers was “misstated,” alleging errors, weak fiscal transparency and misplaced spending priorities.
“The budget presentation outlines a total size of ₦4.237tn, comprising recurrent expenditure of ₦2.052tn and capital expenditure of ₦2.185tn. However, this recurrent expenditure figure includes about ₦383bn in debt repayments, which is a capital and not a recurrent expenditure item,” Doherty wrote.
“As a result, the recurrent expenditure figure is misstated by almost ₦400bn, and consequently, the capital expenditure and overall budget figures may also be inaccurate,” Doherty alleged.
Pinnacle Daily reports that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu had, on November 25, 2025, presented the ₦4.237 trillion budget to the State’s House of Assembly.
In his letter, Doherty questioned the internal consistency of the proposal, noting that the sectoral allocation figures added up to only N3.4 trillion.
“One, or possibly both, of these figures must therefore be wrong,” he asserted.
The PDP aspirant accused the Lagos State Government of denying the public an opportunity to scrutinise budget proposals before passage, arguing that this practice weakens accountability.
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“LASG does not provide details of its proposed budget in the public domain until well after the Appropriation Act is passed into law. This lack of transparency prevents effective review, commentary and input into the proposals,” Doherty stated.
He further raised concerns over an amount allegedly allocated to consultancy and professional fees, stating that the sum accounted for “almost 15 per cent of the entire recurrent cost budget of Lagos State.”
“At these levels, it is not clear what services are being contracted for these tremendous costs, which are recurrent in nature, and why.”
He said Lagos State’s transparency record had worsened despite rising revenues following subsidy removal and currency devaluation.
“It is worrying that, generally, transparency is an area where the Lagos State Government is decidedly lagging behind,” Doherty said.
He alleged further that details of contract awards were no longer being published by the state’s Public Procurement Agency, “as required by law.”
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He said the state had persistently underinvested in social sectors critical to human development.
“Over a five-year period, combined expenditure on education, health, housing development and water supply amounted to just 17 per cent of total government expenditure.
“In a young population with the demographic characteristics of Lagos, education and health should receive closer to 15 per cent each,” Doherty said.
He described as “alarming” the 2025 capital expenditure allocation for the Lagos State House of Assembly, which he pointed out exceeded allocations to both the health and education sectors combined.
“The effects of this sustained underinvestment are evident,” Doherty said, citing public school examination failures, housing deficits and under-five mortality rates.
He also criticised what he called a pattern of unrealistic revenue projections in Lagos budgets, explaining that at ₦4.237tn, the overall proposed 2026 budget continues the predictable trend of unrealistic projections.
He stressed that as of September 2025, actual revenues stood at ₦2.07 trillion, compared with a full-year projection of ₦3.37 trillion.
“Unrealistic revenue budgeting undermines effective planning, prioritisation and implementation of government programmes.
“I reiterate my call for the details of the 2026 and subsequent LASG budget proposals to be made publicly available as part of the legislative process before passage into law,” he added.
As at the time of filling the report, the Lagos state government has yet to respond to the allegation or clarify ₦400bn figure flagged by the PDP chieftain.
Alex is a business journalist cum data enthusiast with the Pinnacle Daily. He can be reached via ealex@thepinnacleng.com, @ehime_alex on X
