President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Ministry of Works to step down some memos to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to enable a re-examination of projects that require additional funding and review.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this to State House Correspondents, at the end of the meeting presided over by the President.
Idris said the Council directed the Minister of Works, David Umahi, to collaborate with the Ministers of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu and Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun to streamline all projects contained in the memo for appropriate funding interventions.
He said President Tinubu also directed that all projects requiring extra funding from the memos presented at the meeting be reconsidered for further deliberation at the next council meeting.
Idris clarified that the projects requiring step down were inherited from previous administrations and were now being streamlined and reworked with priority to ensure their completion in installments.
He emphasized that the Lagos-Calabar highway and other newly-approved roads by the Tinubu administration were not part of the projects requiring augmentation.
The Minister explained that the decision to step down the projects was not only due to funding issues but also other variables being considered.
He stressed that it was not an abandonment and that augmentation and review were not for new projects, as all newly-awarded projects did not have augmentation issues.
The Council also set up a committee to review Nigeria’s Public Procurement Act.
The committee is to be chaired by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu, said at the briefing.
Bagudu said President Tinubu had directed all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to review their intended procurements as provided for in the appropriation, in order to bridge the gaps between appropriated sums and the sums required to execute the projects.
“This will enable clear source of funding and support timely harmonisation of memos by both the Federal Ministries of Finance and Ministry of Budget and National Planning before subsequent submission and presentation to the Executive Council,” Bagudu explained.
Fagbemi stated that the government was considering timeliness in the review to further amend the Public Procurement Act to align with modern realities.
“We want to ensure that whatever is coming to the FEC is in line with the budgetary provisions. Some of the projects have been there for close to 13 years,” Fagbemi said.
He added that the amended Act would eliminate delays in the execution of infrastructure projects by ensuring that timelines were adhered to from conception to final execution.
The Ministers of Finance, Budget and Planning, as well as Works, have been mandated to serve as a clearing house before the reviewed Act is represented to FEC.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation said the council discussed and expressed strong dissatisfaction with a report published by the Daily Trust newspaper regarding the Samoa Agreement.
According to Idris, the government views the Daily Trust report as “misleading, false and designed to create confusion in the land.”
He said the federal government had written to the industry’s ombudsman, urging them to look into the matter and address the “excesses” of the Daily Trust.
The minister emphasised that the government was committed to press freedom and had no intention of gagging the media.
He, however, called on the media to report responsibly and avoid spreading fake news and misinformation, which he said had caused damage to the psyche of the Nigerian people.
Idris said the government expected the industry’s ombudsman to look into the matter objectively and that the Daily Trust should acknowledge its mistakes and apologize to the nation.
The minister also said that the government’s doors were open, and the media could access information from relevant government agencies through the Freedom of Information Act.
