Reps to FG: Fully Implement 2024, 2025 Budgets, Pay Contractors Promptly

The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Government to ensure full implementation of capital projects contained in the 2024 and 2025 national budgets.

The lawmakers made the call following President Bola Tinubu’s fresh request for ₦1.15 trillion domestic borrowing currently before the National Assembly.

They also expressed concern over the protest by indigenous contractors who, for two consecutive days, blocked the main entrance to the National Assembly complex to demand payment for completed federal projects.

The House directed the executive arm to release funds and settle all verified debts owed the contractors without further delay.

The National Assembly had earlier approved a ₦59.99 trillion budget for the 2025 fiscal year.

In a related development, former presidential aide and ex-lawmaker, Senator Ita Enang, faulted the Federal Government for allegedly using revenue from the 2025 budget to finance ongoing projects from the 2024 fiscal year.

Enang, who spoke with reporters in Abuja on Wednesday, said each fiscal year’s revenue should fund only that year’s expenditure.

He stated: “Projects not completed in 2024 ought to have been rolled over and captured in the 2025 budget. The Finance Ministry should not allow such overlap. Every year’s budget should stand on its own.”

According to him, the continuous resort to borrowing reflects the government’s revenue shortfall.

“The reality is that the federal government does not have enough funds to meet its obligations, hence the reliance on borrowing to cover deficits. However, borrowing for budget deficit funding is not new — every appropriation law contains such provisions,” he said.

Enang, an APC chieftain from Akwa Ibom State, also decried the rising wave of defections by opposition lawmakers into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

He warned that unchecked defections could reduce Nigeria to a one-party state, a development he said would weaken democratic competition.

“It’s not that the APC or the Tinubu administration is forcing Nigeria into a one-party state. The opposition parties have simply failed to function as viable institutions,” he said.

He added that lawmakers who defected without a court-recognised division in their parties risk losing their seats as provided by the constitution.

“The Supreme Court has ruled that such defectors should refund all salaries and allowances received after defection,” Enang added.