…as Lawmakers yell Ministers to resign

By Emmanuel Okogba

There was a mild drama on Wednesday, as Members of the House of Representatives drilled the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, his Budget & Economic Planning counterpart, Atiku Bagudu, and Chairman of Nigerian Revenue Service (NRS), Mr. Zach Adedeji.

The House Committee on Appropriation, had summoned the economic team of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu over non performance of the 2025 budget.

The Lawmakers also queried the zero releases for capital components of the 2025, which had grounded projects and other economic activities across all the sectors and agencies of government.

During his opening remarks, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Abubakar Bichi, said the interface between the House and the President’s economic team was to probe the non releases of funds to execute capital projects as contained in the 2025 budget, despite increased revenues and excess earnings.

“This is for us to study, consider and approve the request. We decided to engage the economic team of the President to discuss the previous performance of the 2025, as well as the proposed 2026. 

“We have decided to engage the NRS Chairman to shed more light on the revenue in terms of the 2026 projections. In 2025 we achieved about 28 trillion in our revenue, from the target of 25 trillion. We need to have more information from you so that Nigerians who are watching will be informed”, Bichi said.

The Lawmakers said they received a request from the executive for an approval of N1.15 trillion to fund some parts of capital components of the 2025 budget, adding that, both House of Representatives and the Senate approved the request; probing why the executive still recorded zero implementation, despite the approval. 

Responding, the Finance Minister, Edun, said, “We stopped the unsustainable methodology of printing money, whether to pay debt service, or contractors or meet other obligations of government. We were moving from a position of irregularity to regularizing, and that’s the first thing that happened.

“Now we had naira debt of N152 trillion. About N30 trillion of that was an adjustment. Not new funding, it was just bringing in to the books of the government what was previously ignored as if it didn’t exist and then another N50 trillion was exchange rate adjustment, because when we moved from an opaque system of foreign exchange allocation to market based, of course the exchange, we all know where it moved from in 2023 to 2024, for example. That meant that the foreign debt now had to be borne at the new exchange rate”.

On his part, Bagudu recalled that, the meetings with the Appropriation Committee of the Senate and House, accorded the Ministry to move 70 percent of the capital for 2025 into 2026, which has formed part of the 2026 budget proposal before the National Assembly.

On the budget performance feeders, Bagudu exonerated his ministry, saying, “the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, including the Budget Office, relies on the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation and Ministry of Finance, for data about budget implementation”.

The Chairman of NRS, Adedeji, while defending his Service, said the agency did well in revenue in 2025, by generating N28.23 trillion instead of the N25.2 trillion target for the year.

Not satisfied with Edun’s response, the Lawmakers who turned the meeting to rowdy session, yelled at the Minister of Finance, his Budget and Economic Planning counterpart and Minister of State for Finance, Doris Uzoka-Anite, to resign, for lack of competence.

Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Hon. Bichi, who saved the day, pleaded with his colleagues to step down the sitting, pending the appearance of the Minister of State for Finance.

The Committee therefore adjourned till Thursday, by 1pm, go summon the Minister of State for Finance.

Recall that, the Minister of Health, Prof. Ali Pate, had penultimate Monday, told the House of Representatives that his ministry got only N38 million out of N286 billions allocated in year 2025.

Almost all the Ministers and Heads of agencies who appeared for budget defence, decried zero releases on the 2025 capital budget, the scenario, many Lawmakers considered responsible for the near collapse of the nation’s economy.

The Association of Indigenous Contractors in Nigeria, has also barricaded the main complex of the Ministry of Finance, in January, protesting the non payment of over N4 trillion of the contracts executed in the 2024 budget.