Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has asked the Tinubu-led Federal Government to stop wasting billions on flashy infrastructure while millions of Nigerians remain trapped in poverty.
Speaking on Sunday, Falana said the President cannot tell state governors to “wet the grass” and cushion economic hardship, while Abuja is spending more on renovation than relief.
“The Federal Government is putting N39 billion into the International Conference Centre, yet only N32.7 billion into poverty alleviation. That is not just lopsided. It’s insulting,” Falana said.
He argued that the law already provides a blueprint for addressing mass poverty, referring to the 2023 Social Investment Programme Agency Act. The Act mandates the Federal Government to fund programmes like N-Power, school feeding, conditional cash transfers, and soft loans for small businesses.
Falana, who chairs the Alliance on Surviving COVID-19 and Beyond (ASCAB), said implementing the Act is more urgent than road upgrades or office renovations.
He said, “We have 133 million Nigerians in multi-dimensional poverty. The solution is not talk. It is to release N5 trillion now and fully fund social investment.”
Citing data from BudgIT, Falana warned that the 2025 budget is riddled with waste. “N6.9 trillion was padded across over 11,000 projects. That’s almost 13 percent of the national budget lost to questionable items,” he noted.
Falana also criticised the pay structure of lawmakers, with Senators earning N21 million and Reps getting N15 million monthly. “This is a country where people are skipping meals, yet lawmakers feed fat.”
He said states already have enough money to run welfare programmes. “In one year alone, states and local governments received N11.2 trillion from FAAC. Where did it go?”
To stop abuse of funds, Falana proposed a tripartite committee involving civil society, labour unions, and the Federal Government to manage social welfare resources.
His message to Tinubu was blunt: “You don’t lift millions out of poverty with speeches. You do it by funding the right programmes urgently, transparently, and at scale.”
