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Members of the House of Representatives have clashed over a motion seeking the summoning of President Bola Tinubu to appear before Parliament over the poor implementation of the national budget from 2024 to date.
The development made the plenary very rowdy, as the lawmakers were divided between those who wanted President Tinubu summoned over the abysmal implementation of the national budget and those opposed to making the president appear before the House.
This is as members of the House kicked against a move by the Executive arm to suspend the implementation of constituency projects, also known as Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIPs).
After normalcy returned, the House resolved to summon the relevant ministers concerned with the management of the budget to appear before Parliament to explain the abysmal implementation of the national budgets.
A member of the Labour Party (LP) from Abia State, Alex Ikwechegh, had, in a motion on the “urgent need to address the poor funding of appropriated budgets and delayed releases as revealed during the 2026 budget defence sessions”, proposed that President Tinubu be summoned to appear before the House to explain the poor implementation of the national budget since 2024.
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The lawmaker informed the House that “during the 2026 budget defence sessions, Honourable Ministers and heads of MDAs disclosed deeply troubling levels of funding of the 2025 budget, including sectors that recorded zero capital releases for the entire fiscal year and others that received only token fractions of their appropriated capital votes;
“These disclosures are consistent with the repeated protests staged in 2025 and early 2026 by indigenous contractors at the Federal Ministry of Finance and the gates of the National Assembly, on one occasion disrupting plenary sittings, over unpaid certificates for completed and verified projects, with many contractors unable to service bank loans obtained to execute government projects.”
According to him, President Tinubu, at a Federal Executive Council meeting on December 10, 2025, “expressed grave displeasure at the backlog, directed the immediate settlement of verified contractor liabilities of about One Point Five Trillion Naira, and constituted an interministerial committee to harmonise records and deliver a lasting funding solution, declaring the readiness of government to borrow, if necessary, to settle verified obligations;
“In furtherance of that directive, the National Assembly approved borrowing in excess of One Trillion Naira specifically to finance the settlement of outstanding obligations on completed and verified capital projects, in addition to dedicated provisions in the 2026 Appropriation Act for contractor liabilities, while the Honourable Ministers of Finance have announced the clearance of substantial sums, announcements which contractors dispute as partial.
“That notwithstanding the clear directive of Mr President, the legislative approvals and the ministerial assurances, releases to MDAs remain slow and uneven, stalling critical projects, escalating contract costs, exposing contractors to insolvency and rising nonperforming loans, and eroding public trust in the budget.”
