Peeved by the backlog of debt owed to the federal government amounting to N1.5 trillion, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has set up a high-level multi-ministerial committee to design a funding plan and clear the debt.
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, disclosed this to journalists at the State House at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting held on Wednesday.
Onanuga said President Tinubu was displeased that over 2,000 local contractors were being owed and mandated the six-man ministerial team to find an urgent solution.
He said: “He made it very, very clear he is not happy and wants a one-stop solution. An important highlight in the course of the FEC meeting is that the President expressed grave displeasure about the fact that contractors are being owed money.”
Members of the team include the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; Minister of Works, Dave Umahi; Minister of Education, Olatunji Alausa; Minister of Housing, Ahmed Dangiwa; and the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola.
Also on the team are the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, and the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Dr Zacch Adedeji.
According to Onanuga, “All of them are supposed to sit down, develop a plan as a committee, and then go to the President to present the solution they have found in allocating funds to pay contractors.”
He maintained that the President was determined to “find the money and fix the problem. He even said that, as a sovereign country, we can go and borrow to pay those contractors.”
Checks revealed that local contractors under the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria blocked the Federal Ministry of Finance last week to press for the payment of what they described as long-overdue debts for completed government projects.
The protesters, led by the association’s National Secretary, Babatunde Seun-Oyeniyi, accused the Federal Government of repeatedly shifting its position on the issue and failing to honour commitments made during earlier meetings with officials.
Oyeniyi declared that members of the association were owed more than N500 billion for projects already completed and commissioned.
