Gbaja: As Speaker, House of Reps rejected foreign loan over S/East exclusion

Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, has disclosed that the House of Representatives, under his leadership as Speaker, rejected a federal government foreign loan request because it excluded the South-East from the proposed infrastructure projects.

Gbajabiamila served as Speaker of the House between 2019 and 2023 during the second term of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

He made the disclosure in Abuja while speaking at the opening of a two-day induction programme for newly inaugurated commissioners of the Federal Character Commission (FCC).

According to him, members of the House scrutinised the loan proposal and discovered that the infrastructure projects attached to the borrowing plan covered all geopolitical zones except the South-East.

“The members of the House scrutinised the application with a fine-tooth comb and discovered the loan was specific and covered all zones except the South-East,” he said.

He stated that the lawmakers refused to approve the request and held it back for months until the executive agreed to revise the distribution.

“We refused to pass it for months and kept it in abeyance until we were able to extract the commitment of government to include the South-East in the loan infrastructural distribution,” he added.

Gbajabiamila noted that the decision was rooted in the constitutional principle of federal character and fairness, stressing that it would have been unjust to exclude a region from projects financed by a loan that would be repaid by all Nigerians.

“Even though the government of the day was not happy with me, I had a job to do to ensure that federal character was embedded in the application of the loan,” he said.

He argued that excluding a region from nationally funded infrastructure projects creates the perception of discrimination and threatens national unity.

According to him, the episode highlights the broader responsibilities of the Federal Character Commission beyond appointments into public offices.

He said the commission also has a role in monitoring budgetary allocations and identifying imbalances in project distribution before they escalate into disputes between the executive and the legislature.

Gbajabiamila suggested that the controversy over the loan might have been avoided if the FCC had flagged the imbalance earlier.

“This assignment demands courage — the courage to say no when pressured and to defend the Constitution even when it is inconvenient,” he told the commissioners.

He urged members of the commission to discharge their duties with independence and a strong sense of national responsibility, describing the FCC as an internal mechanism for ensuring equity within the executive arm of government.

He emphasised that adherence to the federal character principle remains critical to promoting fairness, inclusion and public trust in the Nigerian state.

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