Odimmegwa Johnpeter/Abuja
The Tinubu Media Support Group (TMSG) has accused opposition politicians of indulging in scandal-fishing to cast the President Bola Tinubu administration in a bad light ahead of the 2027 election.
The group alleged that recent events had shown that the opposition is banking its political campaign on scandal shopping after realising that it would be difficult to defeat President Tinubu in the forthcoming presidential election.
It said in a statement signed by its Chairman Emeka Nwankpa and Secretary Dapo Okubanjo that Nigerians should not be surprised to see the opposition either misrepresenting facts or echoing unverified information about the government in the public space.
“One of the major issues that opposition figures, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, are latching on to in recent times is the position of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the 2026 budget.
“We are aware that the IMF, in a recent report, spoke about what it called a discrepancy of N8.83 trillion or approximately 2% of GDP in the budget, which it said was executed outside formal budget processes, though it acknowledged that the government had been revising the nation’s laws to capture such expenditures.
“It is instructive that the federal government, through the Finance Minister, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, was quick to respond, clarifying that the N8 trillion expenditures were public spending, which included statutory transfers and intervention funds backed by acts of Parliament.
“To be clear, statutory allocations and contributions to development commissions and other agencies created by law, cost of collection, as well as cost of administration retained by revenue-collecting agencies are not new in the country.
“These are regular, annual developments tied to the Nigerian budget as a first-line charge.
“In addition, there are special interventions backed by law to address national priorities such as security, infrastructure, and disaster response.
“It is noteworthy to emphasise the position of the finance minister that the N8 trillion included capital expenditure approved in separate budgets for some agencies and the Federal Capital Territory by the National Assembly.
“This is exactly why we find it strange that a former Vice President, whom we expect to be conversant with governance and local laws guiding federal budgets in his eight years in office, would jump into the issue to make political capital out of it.
“And while Peter Obi’s limited, and most times, flawed grasp of governance laws at the centre may be understandable, it is clear that former Vice President Abubakar was simply being mischievous,” it added.
TMSG also described the recent allegation by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that President Tinubu was responsible for plunging 17 million Nigerians into acute hunger as a gross misrepresentation of facts.
“Another example of scandal fishing is the ADC’s claim that President Tinubu is to blame for the humanitarian situation, which the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) says is affecting more than 17 million Nigerians.
“What the opposition did was to twist the report by the UN agency showing that more than 17 million Nigerians across nine conflict-affected Northern states are facing acute hunger and present it as the outcome of the policies of the President Tinubu administration.
“Without doubt, this is the height of political mischief, debauchery, and brigandage by individuals who take delight in surfing the Internet for materials they could use to undermine and malign the administration.
“While the federal government is making concrete efforts through kinetic and non-kinetic measures to check security challenges in affected communities, it is mischievous of politicians to accuse the authorities of ‘cruel indifference’ just to further their political interests,” the statement said.
End
