Former Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has criticised the administration of President Bola Tinubu over its failure to release funds to federal ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) months after the passage of the 2025 budget.
The former governor claimed that no single MDA has received a naira from the 2025 Appropriation Act, despite the country being five months into the fiscal year.
Fayemi spoke on Friday in Abuja at a media and civil society roundtable on the relevance of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in promoting electoral transparency and accountability, organised by the International Press Centre (IPC), with support from the European Union under the EU-SDGN II programme.
The National Assembly in February passed the N54.9 trillion 2025 Appropriation Bill presented by President Tinubu in December 2024. The President signed the budget in the same month.
Fayemi, who lamented the delay in releasing funds to MDAs, described the situation as alarming and detrimental to public sector performance.
His words: “The federal budget 2025 that Honorable Rotimi (Spokesperson of the House of Representatives) and his colleagues passed in November, not one naira of that budget has gone to any MDA as I speak to you. The Ministry of Justice is there, they have not received one naira from the 2025 budget. And June is two days’ time, meaning five months with no allocation. Even though on paper we have a federal budget of 2025.
“But that’s also part of the task that I think civil society actors have to do. So that it’s not just attacking the government. How do we also come to the aid of those MDAs we expect to work if they don’t have money to work? So we should be raising these issues.
“I don’t think I’ve seen it in any newspaper or maybe I’ve not been following actively. But nobody has even brought out things that, look, this budget has been passed, but no ministry has accessed it. Of course, they may argue, as you know, government would always have a response.”
Fayemi, a former minister and ex-chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, said while the federal government may argue that it is still disbursing funds from the multiple supplementary and revised budgets passed in 2023 and 2024, such explanations do not excuse the delay in implementing the current budget.
He said, “They may argue and tell you that, well, we’re still spending 2024 budget revised. You know, they had three budgets last year, or even four budgets. They had actual, they had revised, or is it supplementary, supplementary 2023, actual 2024, supplementary 2024, and then now 2025.
“So maybe some of the money appropriated in those previous three budgets are still being spent. And that is why they have chosen not to implement budget 2025. But really, the point to make is that this is a very, very important exercise.”
He also challenged civil society organisations and the media to do more in interrogating the federal government’s financial transparency, especially when public institutions are left to operate without funding.
Fayemi warned that while the FOI Act remains a key instrument for accountability, real transparency requires sustained public engagement with government performance and budget delivery.
In his welcome address, Executive Director of IPC, Lanre Arogundade, stressed the central role of the FOI Act in strengthening Nigeria’s democracy and called for urgent steps to address challenges impeding its effective use and implementation.
He noted that the Act, passed under former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011, was expected to improve transparency, accountability, and participatory governance but has suffered setbacks due to weak compliance, low public awareness, and inadequate enforcement.
According to him, there is need for compliance at both federal and state levels, enhanced media capacity for investigative reporting, and strategic use of the FOI Act in tracking campaign finance and electoral processes.
Arogundade explained that under the EU-SDGN II programme, IPC and other partners aim to promote a regime of routine FOI usage, particularly in the electoral sector, to expose political financing, check misinformation, and uphold professional journalism standards.
In his presentation titled “14 Years of the FOI Act: Addressing the Challenges of Compliance and Usage,” Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda (MRA), Edetaen Ojo, lamented the persistent non-compliance of public institutions with the FOI Act.
Ojo identified inadequate funding as a significant barrier to the effective implementation of the FOI Act, saying that many MDAs lack the resources to fulfil their obligations under the law, including responding to information requests.
Ojo pointed out that since the enactment of the FOI Act in 2011, no public institution or official has been prosecuted for non-compliance, despite numerous instances of wrongful denial of information requests.
According to him, such a situation creates a culture of impunity for non-compliance with the Act and encourages public institutions not to comply, since they know that there will be no consequences for their disobedience.
