The implementation of the 2025 budget is facing challenges, the deputy spokesperson for the House of Representatives, Philip Agbese, admitted on Tuesday, just as he disclosed that a meeting with the relevant cabinet ministers and officials to address the issues was imminent.
Mr Agbese said during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday that the meeting involving the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, and his budget and economic planning counterpart, Abubakar Bagudu, would be held on Wednesday.
|
|
“Tomorrow, by 11 a.m., we will be meeting with the Honourable Minister of Budget and Economic Planning as well as the Minister of Finance, the Director General of the Budget Office, and even the Accountant General to discuss the way forward, to know why these things have not been implemented,” Mr Agbese said.
He was not clear on which organ of the House of Representatives – whether a committee, leadership or random delegation of the House – would be meeting with the officials.
|
|
|
|---|
But he said, “As much as I do not intend to preempt the outcome of tomorrow’s meeting, I know that executives have woken up, and from the explanation given to us…they’ve been able to source money, enough money, you know, to back up the budget. And we believe that there’s still enough time for them to carry out these things.”
Mr Agbese said this amidst rising concerns that the 2025 budget has not been implemented nine months into the year.
Currently, Nigeria is operating two budgets simultaneously, highlighting the broader conundrum of budget implementation in the country.
The two budgets actively in use side by side are the extended capital component of the 2024 budget and the 2025 budget of about N54.2 trillion, which lawmakers increased by N7 billion from the president’s original proposal.
According to a report, there is a probability that the government might have to extend the 2025 budget into 2026 due to procurement delays and a shutdown of the cash-planning portal.
Mr Agbese said Nigerians would be informed of the outcome of the planned meeting with members of the executive represented by the two relevant ministers and other officials, which he hoped would be positive.
Lawmakers also bearing brunt of budget crisis
Media reports indicated that the budget implementation issues have begun to rub off on the lawmakers said to be discontented partly due to delayed payments to contractors handling constituency projects, a development that has put lawmakers under pressure from their constituents.
These concerns, which reportedly featured in private chats among lawmakers, had been interpreted by a section of the media as signs of a possible plot to move against the Speaker.
READ ALSO: Reps speaker raises alarm over Nigeria’s rising debts, says country owes N149trn
During the interview, the deputy spokesperson for the House of Representatives clarified that there was no planned showdown by members of the House against the Speaker, Tajjudeen Abbas.
“You know that in every human society there is bound to be disagreement. And there are also moments of excitement. But in this case, there was actually no disagreement.
“There was nothing like that anywhere. We actually don’t know where people got that story from,” he stated during an interview on
However, Mr Agbese, a representative of Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal Constituency, noted that there were issues within the House stemming from the non-execution of constituency projects budgeted for in the 2025 Appropriations Act.
Following concerns from several constituents, he noted that members of the parliament had only aired their views on the matter, which he said was unrelated to the leadership of Mr Abbas.
