By Secrets Reporters
In the first three months of 2026, Lagos State released ₦78,998,894,883.23 for the rehabilitation of a single road, the Eti-Osa Lekki-Epe Expressway. In the next three months, the same road received ₦273.3 million. Both figures sit in the state’s own quarterly spending records. What those records do not contain, on any of their 690 project lines, is the name of a single contractor.
This is the story of the first half of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s ₦4.44 trillion “Budget of Shared Prosperity” – N1.54 trillion spent in six months, tens of billions moved through vague budget lines, and not one 2026 contract award made public.
The numbers come from official records: the 2026 Appropriation Law and the state’s quarterly spending records for the first half of the year. By the end of June, total spending stood at N1,539,793,109,366.25, representing 34.6 per cent of the annual budget. Capital spending on the roads, hospitals, rail and drainage Lagosians were promised stood at N772.64 billion.
Start with the Lekki-Epe Expressway. The approved 2026 allocation for its Phase IIA and IIB rehabilitation was N125.79 billion, already the second-largest single capital line in the entire budget. In Q1 alone, the Office of Infrastructure released N79 billion against it which is 62.8 per cent of the full-year provision gone in 90 days. Then, in Q2, the releases collapsed to N273.3 million. A project cannot credibly absorb N79 billion in one quarter and N273 million in the next unless the first figure was a front-loaded bulk release whose destination the public is not allowed to see. The reports name no contractor, no measured milestone, no completion certificate. Under the state’s public procurement law, contract awards are meant to be published; the Lagos procurement agency’s register for 2026 is empty.
The expressway is not an isolated case but the pattern SecretsReporters has discovered. Consider the lines on which the money moved fastest. The State Infrastructure Intervention Fund, a N40 billion pot spread across five divisions, had roughly 100 per cent of its provision released by June with N39.99 billion out, with no project-by-project breakdown in the public reports. “Project Development / Resilient Cities,” a N23.9 billion line under the Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, was 96.2 per cent released. The “Intervention on Consultative Forum project across all 5 divisions,” worth N24.45 billion, had 54 per cent released in Q1 alone. That line, SecretsReporters has established, funds a real annual event – the state’s budget stakeholders’ consultative forum, held across the five divisions.
Then there are the liabilities. The budget carried N45 billion for “outstanding liabilities (roads and bridges)” and N41.15 billion for “outstanding liabilities on construction of drainage systems across the state” which is N86.15 billion to settle old debts. By June, the drainage liabilities line was 98.4 per cent consumed: ₦40.5 billion paid out.
While hospitals waited, the comfort lines moved fast for the governor and his people. The budget provided N20 billion for “purchase of GAC operational vehicles (statewide) for top management staff”, official cars for senior officials. By June, N14.48 billion of it, 72.4 per cent, had been released. A separate vehicle line of 80 Hiace buses, 80 Hilux pickups and 120 JAC vehicles had N8.62 billion released in Q1 alone, 73.4 per cent of its provision. The State House of Assembly’s permanent legislative quarters carried N35.47 billion, plus another N20 billion for a new fence and drainage channels around the quarters themselves. The Ojo General Hospital, a 280-bed facility, had an approved N19.55 billion and N17.87 billion released by June which is 91.4 per cent.
The procurement blackout is the thread that ties it together. The contract awards the state has made public run to twelve monthly listings and every one of them is for 2025. Not a single 2026 award has been published, though N772.64 billion in capital spending was recorded in the first half of the year. A separate channel the state maintains for publishing contracts could not be reached. Smaller states manage this basic duty: Ebonyi published its 2026 awards with contractor names, amounts and dates. Lagos, with a budget larger than several states combined, published nothing.
Even the House of Assembly has noticed. In September 2026, it passed a reordering of the budget, with its committee chair stating on the record that disparities in capital project implementation across ministries, departments and agencies had made a reassessment necessary and approved raising the state’s planned bond issuance from N150 billion to N200 billion to fund infrastructure.
