Keep Your Promise to Local Contractors, Economic Rights Activists Tell FG, Finance Minister As Senate Drills Edun, Others

Keep Your Promise to Local Contractors, Economic Rights Activists Tell FG, Finance Minister

As Senate Drills Edun, Others

Frontline Economic Rights Activists (FERA) on Thursday urged the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, to spare Nigeria further embarrassment by honouring the February 24 deadline earlier promised for the payment of outstanding debts owed to local contractors.

This call came as the Senate Committee on Appropriation subjected Mr. Edun and his team to hours of intense questioning at the National Assembly.

The Senate had summoned the Finance Minister and other key managers of the nation’s economy over the alleged zero releases for the capital component of the 2025 budget — a development lawmakers said had crippled government operations.

Expressing concern over what he described as the near-zero performance of ministries and agencies in implementing their 2025 capital budgets, Chairman of the Committee, Senator Solomon Yayi, declared that “the era of rubber-stamp budgeting is over.” He stressed that the session was not routine oversight but “a full fiscal autopsy.”

Yayi also reminded the minister of the presidential directive mandating Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to fund 30 per cent of prior obligations before March 2026, with the remaining 70 per cent to be absorbed into the new budget framework.

In his response, the Finance Minister admitted that the 2025 budget had significantly underperformed. He explained that government revenues were largely used to cover salaries, pensions and statutory transfers, leaving capital projects underfunded. According to him, “actual receipts barely covered recurrent expenditure.”

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Comrade Abdullahi Musa, and made available to journalists Thursday evening, FERA commended the Senate Committee’s intervention, stating that Nigeria belongs to all its citizens.

The group accused the Finance Minister of being “economical with the truth,” arguing that when President Bola Tinubu invited him and his team in December, he did not present the same explanations offered at the Senate. FERA noted that it was based on earlier briefings that the President had directed the immediate payment of local contractors.

Musa further alleged that Mr. Edun and the Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, had issued conflicting statements on the same issues, thereby undermining public confidence.

“As far as the National Assembly has appropriated funds for these projects, and with all monetary and fiscal laws backing them, nothing should have delayed the releases if the funds were indeed available. At no time did either Wale Edun or Doris Uzoka-Anite clearly inform the President or the public that there were insufficient funds to service these projects.

“All we have heard in the last six months are repeated promises. The duo has reportedly pledged to clear over ₦4 trillion owed to local contractors no fewer than eleven times — and failed on each occasion. This raises serious concerns about integrity and commitment. It is an embarrassment to the country,” Musa stated.

FERA therefore called on Mr. Edun and his team to honour the February 24 deadline promised to protesting contractors, stressing that payment of the outstanding debts is both an economic necessity and a matter of national credibility.

The group also condemned reports attributed to the Minister of State suggesting an extension of the implementation of the 30 per cent capital budget obligation to November, describing the move as unacceptable.

“This approach will not work. It reflects a lack of urgency in addressing the worsening economic situation. We urge the President to take decisive action in the interest of the nation’s economy,” the statement concluded.