Group to Tinubu: Treat 2025 Capital Budget as National Emergency or Risk Reform Failure
A civic accountability group, the Coalition for Equitable Development and Fiscal Justice (CEDFJ), has urged President Bola Tinubu to declare the 2025 capital budget a national emergency.
The group warned that persistent bureaucratic delays under the Ministry of Finance are derailing economic reforms, slowing national recovery, and weakening citizens’ trust in government ahead of the 2027 general elections.
In a statement on Monday signed by Dr Gbenga Akinbowale, CEDFJ’s president, and Gloria Maduegbuna, its national secretary, the group accused the Ministry of Finance of being the “weakest link” in the administration’s reform agenda.
Source: Twitter
“Finance Ministry is slowing down reforms”
According to the group, the Ministry of Finance, under Minister Wale Edun, has failed to match the President’s bold reform vision with effective execution.
“While the President has shown courage in reforming oil subsidy, foreign exchange policy, and national planning, his finance team continues to choke these reforms with slow execution, delayed capital releases, and bureaucratic aloofness,” the statement read.
CEDFJ said the nation’s fiscal management system has become “trapped in a cycle of excuses and inefficiency,” warning that unless urgent steps are taken to fix the process, Nigeria risks another year of stalled projects and public frustration.
Delayed capital releases threaten economic stability
The group emphasized that the recurring delays in capital funding threaten to undermine Tinubu’s economic recovery agenda. Each year, it said, the same pattern repeats — late fund releases, abandoned projects, and the loss of value due to inflation.
“The President must now see the 2025 capital budget as a national emergency. This must not continue under an administration that came to power promising a break from the past,” the statement added.
CEDFJ warned that continued inefficiency “is not politically sustainable” and could erode the goodwill that brought the Tinubu administration to power.
“Every stalled road project, every uncompleted hospital or power installation is a reminder that citizens are still waiting for the Renewed Hope they were promised,” the group said.
Call for presidential oversight on capital spending
Dr Akinbowale revealed that a review of previous budgets showed that less than 70 percent of capital allocations were utilized in most ministries, departments, and agencies between 2021 and 2024. This pattern, he warned, could cripple vital infrastructure projects if repeated in 2025.
“It is no longer strategic to repeat the same bureaucratic rituals that have failed for years.
Source: Facebook
The Ministry of Finance must be reformed to act as an enabler of growth, not a gatekeeper of inertia,” Akinbowale stated.
CEDFJ called on President Tinubu to establish a direct presidential monitoring mechanism for capital releases and to demand quarterly performance reports from the Finance Ministry and the Accountant-General’s office.
“The credibility of the Renewed Hope Agenda depends not on how well the budget is written, but on how faithfully it is implemented. If 2025 becomes another year of excuses, we risk eroding the very hope that brought this government to power,” the statement concluded.
WACEPR Hails NUPRC Boss Komolafe
Legit.ng earlier reported that The West Africa Centre for Energy Policy and Reforms (WACEPR) has extended heartfelt congratulations to Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), on being named LEADERSHIP Newspaper’s CEO of the Year 2025.
In a statement issued on Friday by its Executive Director, Dr. Kwabena Mensah-Ashitey, WACEPR described Komolafe as one of Africa’s most visionary and reform-minded energy regulators.
The recognition, it said, was a fitting tribute to his transformative impact on Nigeria’s oil and gas regulatory landscape.
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Source: Legit.ng
