Security, tax, budget top Tinubu’s 2025 to-do list

Security, tax and budget are key priorities for President Bola Tinubu in 2025.

President Tinubu touched down at about 9.30pm at the Nnamdi Azikiwe airport in Abuja on Tuesday night, resuming work in 2025, after about a two-week holiday in Lagos to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.

At the 14th and last meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the year, on December 16, 2024, Mohammed Idris, minister of information and national orientation, had announced that the president was shutting down activities after the presentation of the N49.7 trillion 2025 Appropriation Bill earlier on December 18.

As the president resumed work in Abuja on Wednesday, January 8, he would be expected to confront several issues left unresolved in 2024.

Top among them is the critical issue of growing insecurity across the nation, particularly in food-belt states.

The president has vowed to bring down headline inflation from 34.6 percent to 15 percent, an ambitious target given the high rate of food inflation in Nigeria.

Read also: Budget, tax reform bills top legislative agenda in 2025 – Bamidele

Nigeria’s food inflation, which is a major contributor to the overall inflation, peaked at 39.93 percent in November, 2024.

To achieve a reduction in inflation, especially food inflation, Nigeria must tackle insecurity, flooding, high cost of public transportation, inefficient power supply, as well as reduce the high cost of imported inputs in 2025, experts say.

Similarly, a critical look at the 2025 budget shows that defence and security are top with a huge chunk of N4.91 trillion. Infrastructure got N4.06 trillion, while education was allotted N3.52 trillion, with health getting N2.48 trillion.

Just a few days ago, Bello Abdullahi, Niger State commissioner for homeland security, directed farmers in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state to stop going to farms to allow the military to clear improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted in farms by bandits.

In December alone, three of such explosives killed several farmers and injured others.

This depicts how desperate bandits have become to further frustrate food production in the country.

With the bandits and kidnappers pocketing a whooping N2.2 trillion as ransom in 2024 alone, the federal government must work hard to tackle these bandits, as kidnapping has become a lucrative business, experts say.

Tax Reforms

The tax reforms became a contentious issue in 2024. The president is already engaging northern elders to get their buy-in, but dissident voices insist that the tax reforms are targeted at the North.

Governors from northern states have so far remained adamant on their demands for the president to withdraw the bills to allow for more consultations.

Read also: Tinubu defends cabinet size, subsidy removal, tax reform in first media chat

Budget Acceleration

The 2025 budget, which was presented on the 18th of December, 2024, is yet to be passed by the National Assembly.

Analysts believe the president will press for an accelerated passage of the 2025 budget to maintain the January to December annual budget cycle which was reintroduced by former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020.

Recall that the 2020 budget was passed and signed in December. Only the 2001 and 2007 budgets were not delayed.

The president is therefore expected to drive the implementation of the 2025 budget with a new public procurement policy that ensures that all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the federal government present their implementation plans as soon as the budget is signed into law.

Youth Confab

The president has also promised to ensure that the long-awaited National Youth Confab is implemented in the first quarter of this year, 2025, as promised.

Ayodele Olawande, minister of youth development, told BusinessDay in Abuja that the confab will be different from the usual confab.

“We are not going to gather people in Abuja, put them in hotels to spend public money, like the previous governments did with confabs.

“The youths will be selected and sent to the grassroots to engage with the locals to understand their needs, challenges and proffer solutions to the challenges.”

Read also: Tax Reform Bills: What’s in it for Farmers?

Food Inflation

The president, in his New Year message, promised that in 2025 the government will intensify efforts to lower costs by boosting food production and promoting local manufacturing of essential drugs and other medical supplies.

He also reiterated his ambition to reduce inflation from its current high of 34.6 percent to 15 percent.

“In this new year, my administration will further consolidate and increase access to credit for individuals and critical sectors of the economy to boost national economic output.

“To achieve this, the federal government will establish the National Credit Guarantee Company to expand risk-sharing instruments for financial institutions and enterprises.”

He stated that the company, which is expected to start operations before the end of the second quarter, is a partnership of government institutions such as the Bank of Industry, Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Agency, and Ministry of Finance Incorporated, the private sector, and multilateral institutions.

This initiative is expected to strengthen the confidence of the financial system, expand credit access, and support under-served groups such as women and youths, he noted.