ActionAid Nigeria has urged federal and state governments to reduce wasteful expenditure and redirect public funds to education, healthcare, water, food security and social protection.

The organisation made the call while responding to President Bola Tinubu’s directive that governors should stop constructing unnecessary flyovers in locations without serious traffic congestion and concentrate on projects that address citizens’ needs.

Country Director Andrew Mamedu said the President’s statement should lead to a broader discussion about public finance and the preference for politically visible projects over investments with direct social value.

ActionAid said infrastructure remained important, but warned that limited public resources were often consumed by prestige projects, luxury purchases, excessive travel, oversized delegations and discretionary spending with weak accountability.

The group cited Budget Office figures indicating that the President and Vice President were allocated a combined N9.36 billion in the 2026 budget for local and international travel, food and refreshments. It noted that the amount did not necessarily include the full cost of official trips, since expenses for support personnel may appear in the budgets of other agencies.

ActionAid estimated that cutting the proposed allocation by half would save about N4.68 billion. Based on recent government project costs, the organisation said the amount could finance around 62 blocks of three classrooms, 208 solar powered boreholes and five equipped primary healthcare centres.

Mamedu described public budgets as moral documents that reveal government priorities. He argued that each unnecessary purchase or unjustified trip represents a lost opportunity to provide classrooms, medicines, safe water or community protection.

The organisation called for evidence based infrastructure planning, stronger citizen participation in budgeting and greater transparency in discretionary and security related spending without compromising national security.

It said the real measure of governance should be the number of lives improved through quality education, healthcare, safe water, livelihoods and economic opportunity, rather than the number of monuments or prestige projects completed.