In a significant development, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, on Thursday, successfully brokered a resolution through his intervention, bringing an end to the standoff between the Federal Government and indigenous contractors.
This came after the contractors, owed for months, staged a protest in Abuja.
Following his appointment as Chairman of the House Special Committee on Budget Implementation by the Speaker, Rep Abbas Tajudeen, Kalu convened an expanded meeting with the contractors numbering over 80 across the country with their leadership for an open dialogue on the issue.
In attendance were also the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, the Accountant-General of the Federation, Shamseldeen Ogunjimi and other top government officials.
After a marathon meeting lasting over four hours, Kalu announced that all parties have resolved the issues in the interest of the economy.
Kalu’s intervention was hailed by the parties who said that it averted further disruptions, demonstrating the effectiveness of dialogue in resolving disputes.
To this end, payments to contractors are expected to commence from Monday.
Speaking at the end of the meeting, the Deputy Speaker said that a mutually beneficial agreement was reached, expressing his gratitude to the Speaker of the House and his colleagues for entrusting him with the responsibility.
He also announced subsequent meetings later this month to evaluate progress.
He said: “First, I want to thank the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass, the leadership of the House for finding me worthy to be the Chairman of Budget Implementation Committee. We met yesterday, cut down our holidays to be able to reconvene and look into this all important matters.
“We met on Wednesday with Finance Minister, Minister of Budget and Planning, Accountant-General of the Federation, Representatives that cut across all the caucuses of the House, including representation from the House Appropriation Commitee and Finance.
“We saw the protest and asked them to come, let’s have a conversation. I want to thank President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for appointing these gentlemen to occupy the positions they occupy.
“They have shown humility in service. They’ve shown diligence in the way this matter has been handled and the parliament we are happy that all we discussed yesterday they started implementing today, the ability to engage with the people.
“We had over 4 hours engagement and they left here smiling. We got the strategy in place, and we’re going to come back on the 21st of this month to review what we’ve done so far, how we’ve ticked the boxes, what needs to be done and the way forward.”
Also speaking, the minister of finance, Edun commended the Deputy Speaker for his intervention, assuring that the payment will commence next week.
“Under the leadership of the Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, we did hold a marathon meeting today where all the issues were discussed and a timeline was put in place and a way forward was mapped out and all parties at the end of it left knowing that contractors would be paid for jobs done and we have an orderly and systematic way of dealing with the backlogs which had approved overtime.
“Once again, we commend the leadership of the House of Representatives and the contractors for their willingness to sit down and dialogue. The Accountant-General of the Federation made some commitments which helped us to chart the way forward.
“We had a peaceful solution. A timeline was put in place and everyone accepted that there are steps that need to be taken, approvals, finalization and orderly procedure for payments. After Friday’s holiday, the Central Bank will open again on Monday and payments will commence immediately”, he said.
The Accountant-General of the Federation, Ogunjimi corroborated the position of the minister of finance.
“This process is ongoing. We’ve been paying contractors and we will continue to pay. From Monday, payments will start dropping”, he said.
Earlier in the meeting, the leadership and membership of the association of indigenous contractors of Nigeria expressed satisfaction with the resolutions reached.
Commending the Deputy Speaker for his intervention, they also pledged to discontinue with the protest.
