A former Lagos State governorship candidate, Funso Doherty, has criticised the Lagos State Government’s proposed ₦4.237 trillion 2026 budget, alleging extravagant and questionable spending by key government institutions. In an open letter dated December 11, 2025, and addressed to the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Doherty accused the government of lacking fiscal transparency, probity and discipline, pointing to what he described as inflated and poorly justified expenditure items in both the proposed 2026 budget and the 2025 Appropriation Act.
According to details contained in the letter, Doherty faulted a provision of over ₦20.6 billion for the purchase of vehicles for lawmakers, including 40 back-up vehicles, 40 utility buses and 40 official vehicles, which he said translates to about ₦516 million per legislator. He also raised concerns over ₦212.1 million allocated for the purchase of 20 office tables and chairs by the Office of Public-Private Partnerships, describing the implied unit cost of ₦10.6 million per set as unreasonable. Other expenditures highlighted include ₦4.5 billion for generators for the House of Assembly, ₦6.22 billion for the purchase of 40 properties in Lagos and Abuja, and ₦217 million for a single 13-seater bus.
Doherty further criticised the inclusion of ₦186.6 billion for consultancy and professional fees, which he said accounts for nearly 15 per cent of the state’s recurrent expenditure, while also questioning the accuracy of the overall budget figures. He argued that debt repayments of ₦383 billion were wrongly classified as recurrent expenditure and noted inconsistencies between sectoral allocations and the total budget size. The former governorship candidate warned that heavy spending on lawmakers contrasts sharply with what he described as under-investment in social sectors, noting that education, health, housing and water combined account for only 17 per cent of total government expenditure.