Know What’s Inside 2026 Budget for You As President Tinubu Presents to Senate

By: Olufemi Orunsola 

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has on Friday, December 19, presented the N58.18tn 2026 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly, where he affirmed that si#Botswana, #Botswana, #Nigeria, #Algeria #Algeria, #Angola, #Argentina, #Australia, #Austria, #Austria, #Bangkok, #Belgium #Belgium, #Bharian, #Bolivia, #Brazil, #Bulgaria, #cameroon, #Canada, #Chile, #China, #Colombia, #Congo, #Côte d’Ivoire, #Croatia, #Cuba, #Cyprus, #DR Congo, #Dubai, #Egypt, #Europe, #Finland, #France, #Gambia, #Georgia, #Germany, #Ghana, #Guinea, #Guinea-Bissau, #Hong Kong, #Hungary, #India, #Indonesia, #Italy, #Jamaica, #japan, #Kenya, #Kuwait, #Laos, #Lesotho, #Liberia, #Malaysia, #Mauritania, #Mozambique, #Namibia, #NewZealand, #Norway, #Omanz, #Pakistan, #Peru, #Portugal, #Qatar, #Russia, #Rwanda, #SaudiArabia, #Sierra-Leonence national security remained the foundation of economic growth, investment and social stability, defence and security tops the allocations at a projected sum of N5.41tn Allocation For Defence/Security.

OPEN TELEVISION NAIJA (OTN) NEWS reports that defence and security have for the third consecutive time since President Tinubu started presenting budgetary allocations to the Senate in November 2023, gulped the largest singular allocation.

OTN News has, therefore, thought it prudent to articulate what's in the 2026 budget dubbed “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity".

Basically, as proposed, defence and security will receive N5.41tn, ahead of infrastructure, education and health, reaffirming a pattern established in the 2024 and 2025 budgets, where security consistently attracted the highest sectoral funding although many analysts believe that widespread insecurity, high-magnitude

terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping in Nigeria over the last two years, especially in the outgoing year, cast serious shadows on the landslide budgetary allocation to the sector. 

In swift justification for the lion's share allocation to defence and security, President Tinubu said the security vote would be deployed to modernise the armed forces, strengthen intelligence-driven policing, enhance border surveillance and support joint operations among security agencies.

In his words, “We will invest in security with clear accountability for outcomes because security spending must deliver security results."

He also announced a major reset of Nigeria’s national security architecture, including the establishment of a new national counter-terrorism doctrine anchored on unified command, intelligence coordination, and community stability.

Notably, in the proposed framework, Tinubu, has for the first time in the history of the ruling All Progressives Congress led government since 2019, declared that all armed groups operating outside state authority—including bandits, militias, kidnappers, armed gangs and violent cult groups, would from henceforth, be classified as terrorists, along with their financiers, informants and political or community enablers.

The President argued that the tougher classification was necessary to close legal and operational gaps that had allowed violent groups to thrive for years.

This development, OTN News, observes, may be a game changer in Nigeria's security architecture and war against terrorism and insecurity.

Away from security, President Tinubu also proposes N3.56tn for infrastructure, N3.52tn for education, and N2.48tn for health.

Although he acknowledged the pressure on public finances, he insisted that prioritising security was unavoidable.

He expressed justification for the huge security allocation by expressly linking it to broader social development goals.

“Without security, investment will not thrive. Without educated and healthy citizens, productivity will not rise. Without infrastructure, jobs and enterprise will not scale,” he said.

The President urged lawmakers to support the proposal, arguing that the budget was designed to consolidate recent economic gains while restoring public confidence in the state’s ability to protect lives and property.

OTN News further relays the sectoral breakdown of the 2026 Budget as proposed and transmitted to the Senate below: