Former Director General of the Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr. Joe Abah, has voiced support for the World Bank's criticism of Nigeria's 2025 budget of N54.9 trillion, describing it as a return to "miracle budgeting."

In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, Abah questioned the realism of the budget's key assumptions, particularly the projected oil production increase from the current 1.6 million barrels per day to 2.1 million barrels per day.

"We had moved away from this practice of miracle budgeting but it has clearly returned. Oil production rate is 1.6m bpd but you want to move to 2.1m bpd overnight. How, other than through a miracle?" Abah stated.

The World Bank had earlier described Nigeria's 2025 federal budget as overly ambitious and warned that the Federal Government might be forced to rely on the Central Bank of Nigeria's Ways and Means facility to finance likely revenue shortfalls.

President Bola Tinubu signed the 2025 Appropriation Act into law with a record budget of N54.99 trillion, the highest in Nigeria's history, increased from the initial proposal of N49.7 trillion submitted to the National Assembly.

Abah further criticized other budget assumptions, including the projected oil price of $75 per barrel and the expectation that inflation would drop dramatically from 24% to 15% "overnight."

"These assumptions are in the realm of what we call 'miracle budgeting.' It's not very different from some charlatan asking you to hold up your phone to receive a 'miracle alert,'" he remarked.

The former public service reformer expressed concern that Nigeria appears to be reversing progress made in budgeting reforms, stating: "We had moved away from this practice through robust reforms of our budgeting system. We should not go back to it."

Abah indicated his intention to write a more detailed newspaper article explaining why unrealistic budgeting is detrimental to the country's economic planning and development.

The controversy highlights growing concerns about Nigeria's fiscal planning amid challenging economic conditions and raises questions about the government's strategy for achieving its ambitious revenue and growth targets for 2025.