Nigeria’s House of Reps keeps clashing with the executive over unpaid constituency projects
For the second time in eight months, the House of Representatives has been thrown into disorder over the same underlying issue: constituency and zonal intervention project funds that lawmakers say aren’t being paid. The first time, it took direct and personal intervention from President Bola Tinubu to calm the chamber. This time, lawmakers are going further to summon the president himself, not just the officials beneath him.
Round one: November 2025
In an October 2025 open letter to colleagues, Delta lawmaker Benedict Etanabene said he hadn’t been paid “one dime” for constituency projects completed in December 2024, accusing the executive of selectively funding projects it favored while ignoring lawmakers’ own appropriations. It was widespread enough that on November 4, 2025, the House formally took up the matter of outstanding debts to indigenous contractors as urgent public business, issuing a seven-day ultimatum to Finance Minister Wale Edun, Budget Minister Atiku Bagudu, and Accountant-General Shamseldeen Ogunjimi to clear the backlog.
The ultimatum expired without result and what actually pushed the situation to the brink wasn’t a floor confrontation among lawmakers. It was external pressure: hundreds of contractors under the All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN) physically blocked the National Assembly’s main gate, blocking vehicle access, after going unpaid for work completed since 2024. Only then did house leadership escalate he matter privately to the Presidency. Tinubu responded by personally directing Edun and Ogunjimi to begin immediate payments. Some contractors confirmed receiving payment shortly after.
Round two: July 2026
Today, eight months later, the same underlying issue resurfaced, this time triggered by a new document rather than an expired deadline. A Federal Treasury Circular dated June 29, 2026, again signed by Ogunjimi, directed all ministries, departments, and agencies to immediately halt processing payments for constituency and zonal intervention projects unless they first obtain a Certificate of Verification and Compliance from the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs. The circular cited inconsistent compliance with an earlier 2023 directive on project implementation as the reason for the fresh restriction.
Etanabene raised the circular on the floor during plenary this week under a point of privilege. The session turned rowdy as lawmakers disagreed, and it escalated into a motion seeking to summon President Tinubu directly.
What the pattern suggests
In eight months, two disagreements both centered on the same office is enough to call this a recurring structural problem rather than a one-off dispute. What’s not yet clear is whether Tinubu will respond to this round the way he did the last one — with a quiet, direct instruction that defuses tension before it hardens into a formal confrontation — or whether the more aggressive move to summon him personally signals that lawmakers no longer expect informal fixes to hold. That answer will likely determine whether this becomes round two of a pattern that resolves itself each time, or the point where it stops being resolvable quietly.
