BUDGET ROLLOVER SYNDROME (PART 2): WHEN THE RED CHAMBER BECAME DOCILE

BUDGET ROLLOVER SYNDROME (PART 2): WHEN THE RED CHAMBER BECAME DOCILE


By Comrade Dr. Kenneth Oshiogwemoh,

Public Communicator and Political Affairs Analyst, Abuja.

13th October, 2026.


The most tragic part of the budget rollover syndrome is not in the Villa. It is in the Red Chamber.

In Part 1 of this series, I warned that Nigeria has dangerously moved from annual budgeting to perpetual budgeting. Today, I ask a more painful question: where is the National Assembly?

Under Sections 59, 80, 81, 88, 89 and 318 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Nigeria operates a 12-month financial year. The Constitution gives the National Assembly the power of the purse and the duty of oversight. That sacred duty is currently failing.

The Facts on Ground:

As of today, 13th October 2026, contractors who executed 2024 capital projects across the federation have not been paid. The capital component of the 2025 Appropriation Act has been extended four times - from December 2025 to March 2026, to June 2026, to September 2026, and now to December 2026. Four extensions of a single budget in peacetime - without war, without pandemic, without any published implementation report. And now we are being told that unfinished 2026 projects will be rolled into 2027.

Three budgets running concurrently. One national crisis.

This Is Not About My Senator:

Let me state clearly for the avoidance of doubt: this article is not directed at my Senator, Comrade Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole. As my leader and Senator representing Edo North Senatorial District, I know his pedigree as a former Labour leader who has always stood for accountability and the common man. Edo North is proud to have a Senator with courage to speak truth to power. He has not failed us.

My concern is with the leadership and institutional docility of the 10th Senate as a whole.

Many unusual things are happening under this administration and the Senate as an institution is keeping quiet. The Honourable Minister of Finance himself admitted that revenue performance is hovering between 40 to 60 percent, yet budgets are being rolled over as if all is well. Contractors are crying and protesting in Abuja, some dying in debt, yet oversight is silent.

109 Watchdogs Turned 109 Spectators:

The Senate has 109 members - former Governors, former Ministers, Professors, Senior Advocates of Nigeria, captains of industry. These are men and women of vast experience. But when institutional direction is weak and leadership prioritizes partisan solidarity over constitutional duty, even strong voices are drowned by party conformity.

Party loyalty has replaced constitutional loyalty. The Senate leadership has turned a constitutional duty of checks and balances into partisan solidarity with the Executive. That is very bad for Nigeria and for our democracy.

Speed in passing budgets is not an achievement. Accountability in implementing them is. When the leadership of the Senate approves four extensions of the 2025 budget without compelling the Executive to publish what is owed to 2024 contractors or a detailed implementation report for 2025, it has failed institutionally.

Budgeting is a social contract. When releases do not match announcements, projects stall, contractors are ruined, jobs are lost, banks collapse on bad loans and public trust erodes.

My Call:


I therefore call on the leadership of the 10th Senate to rise to its constitutional responsibility. I call on my own Senator, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who understands struggle and who fought for workers all his life, to help lead this awakening from within. Let the Senate demand and publish:

a) A full disclosure of what is owed to 2024 capital contractors and when they will be paid;

b) A detailed implementation report for the 2025 capital budget - how much was released, to which MDAs, and for which projects;

c) A full disclosure of the total value and list of 2026 projects proposed to be rolled into 2027.

Nigeria is not dying under this weight of paper budgets because we lack laws. We have good laws. Nigeria is dying because we lack institutional courage to enforce those laws.

The Red Chamber must not be 109 spectators watching Nigeria drift into perpetual budgeting. It must be 109 watchdogs defending the Nigerian people.

Comrade Dr. Kenneth Oshiogwemoh

Public Communicator and Political Affairs Analyst

Based in Abuja | Hails from Edo North

koshiogwemoh@gmail.com | 080-7707-0594

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