Kehinde Fajobi
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, was visibly unsettled by probing questions from Senators during the 2025 budget defence on Thursday.
Faced with intense scrutiny over the implementation of the 2024 budget, particularly its capital expenditure, Edun urgently asked the Appropriations Committee to hold a closed-door session for a more detailed response.
The heated exchange began when Senator Abdul Ningi, former Deputy Senate Leader, questioned Edun on the management of fuel subsidy removal proceeds and the state of capital expenditure for the 2024 fiscal year.
Ningi asked, “What is the budget performance achieved so far, for the 2024 fiscal year, particularly in terms of capital expenditure? We haven’t heard from the Minister how much has been saved from the removal of fuel subsidy and how much has been expended.
“We also haven’t heard from the Ministers about the debt servicing. How much have we actually used to service our debt in 2024? How much are we expecting to service the debt in 2025?”
Edun, seeking a more private environment to address the sensitive matters, responded, “Are we in a closed-door session? If we are not in a closed-door session, I will humbly seek for that for detailed explanations on the questions asked.”
In response, Committee Chairman Senator Olamilekan Adeola requested that journalists leave to allow for the closed-door session.
Meanwhile, other top government officials also faced intense questioning.
The Senate Committee on Information and National Orientation, chaired by Senator Kenneth Eze, grilled the Director General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, over the National Identity Project.
The committee found that the project was largely unknown to the public, especially at the grassroots level.
Issa-Onilu defended the project, saying, “The challenge we have about value system is about National Identity which is very necessary at galvanising Nigerians for nation building, national development and growth.”
However, the committee insisted that NOA re-draft and re-present its 2025 budgetary proposals.
Similarly, the Director General of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ali Mohammed Ali, was directed to reconcile discrepancies in the 2024 budget before submitting projections for 2025.