●Sets Up ministerial committee to verify and pay over 2,000 Nigerian contractors
●Silent on fate of pensioners
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has finally moved to confront what has become an embarrassing burden for the Federal Government: the multi-trillion-naira debt owed to thousands of struggling Nigerian contractors whose businesses have been pushed to the brink by unpaid obligations by federal government ministries, departments, and agencies.
The President, visibly displeased, announced the constitution of a special ministerial committee to urgently examine the avalanche of outstanding payments and recommend immediate steps to settle them. Presidential spokesperson, Mr. Bayo Onanuga disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after yesterday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by the President at the State House, Abuja.
According to Onanuga, “The President expressed very grave displeasure about the fact that contractors are being owed money. He actually said he was upset, and he then set up a committee of about six ministers and said they should look into the problems of getting funds to pay those contractors.”
He revealed that a presentation by the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Procurement further heightened Tinubu’s concern. “The DG of procurement told the President that about 2,000 contractors are being owed money, and this made the President very upset,” he noted.
Onanuga listed members of the committee charged with identifying solutions, securing funds, and reporting back promptly. They include the Minister of Finance, Minister of Economic Planning, Director-General of the Budget Office, Minister of Works, Minister of Education, Minister of Housing, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, as well as the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
He added that the president ordered the team to act with speed and unity of purpose. “All of them are supposed to sit down, meet as a committee, and then go to the President to tell him the solution they have found,” he said.
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Onanuga stressed that Tinubu was unequivocal in his frustration and the urgency he expected. “The President said he is not happy at all. He wants a quick solution,” he emphasized.
Tinubu’s directive comes on the wake of widespread criticism that the administration is deliberately impoverishing large sections of the population. The opposition African Democratic Congress, ADC, in a statement by Bolaji Abdullahi, its National Publicity Secretary, said the party found it alarming that pensioners and contractors were being pushed to the brink while government officials boasted about robust national finances.
Local contractors under the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN) had stormed the Ministry of Finance last week over inexplicable delays in payments for completed and inaugurated projects, which they claimed exceeded N4 trillion.
The Coalition of Federal Pensioners of Nigeria also protested last week, threatening a nationwide naked protest over unpaid pension increment arrears and palliative allowances.
The ADC vowed to join the nationwide protests if the government fails to take urgent action. It decried the plight of contractors who have been camping at the ministry, awaiting payment for work already delivered, and expressed solidarity with pensioners threatening to march naked in frustration.
The Opposition Party questioned the contradiction between the government’s claims of strong financial performance and its failure to honour obligations to those who have served the nation or executed approved contracts. “How can contractors still be owed so much for completed projects if the country is truly as financially stable as officials claim?” the party queried, wondering why pensioners continue to wait more than a year for increments and palliatives already approved.
The ADC said it stood ready to march with the affected groups if the federal government did not immediately move to resolve the growing crisis.
[kTH]
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