Former Governor of Ekiti State and immediate past Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, has decried the federal government’s failure to release funds for the 2025 budget nearly halfway through the fiscal year.
Speaking on Friday at a media and civil society roundtable in Abuja, Fayemi described the situation as deeply concerning.
“June is in two days. Yet not one naira of the 2025 budget has been released to any MDA,” he declared, describing it as a glaring example of the disconnect between the appropriation process of the National Assembly and the executive’s budget implementation.
The event, themed “The Relevance of the FOI Act in Electoral Transparency and Accountability,” was organised by the International Press Centre (IPC) with support from the European Union’s Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Phase II programme. It also marked the 14th anniversary of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act.
Naijaonpoint reports that Fayemi used the occasion to reflect on Nigeria’s democratic journey and the struggle for transparency and accountability.
The former governor praised civil society organisations such as the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), Media Rights Agenda (MRA), and the IPC for their roles in advancing transparency.
Fayemi said, “This work is a long struggle in gestation. CLO provided the space from which MRA and others emerged. Even IPC started from that push for accountability.”
He recalled his decision to publicly declare his assets as governor in 2010—a move that met with some resistance.
“I asked: what is ‘public’ about a secret asset declaration?” he queried.
According to Fayemi, the FOI Act has played a key role in uncovering cases of budget padding, project insertions, and fictitious contracts. He referenced the work of civic tech platform, BudgIT, in holding government accountable.
However, he warned that the mere availability of information does not necessarily translate to effective governance.
“You can have information without transparency, and transparency without accountability. Power knows the truth—it just chooses when to use it,” he stated.
Fayemi also cited his leadership of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the implementation of the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme as a high point of his commitment to open governance.
He said Ekiti State was among the first to begin publishing contract and procurement data online, enabling public scrutiny of government spending.
“Under SFTAS, we encouraged peer review among states. You could go on the Ekiti procurement portal and see who got what contract, for how much, and under what terms,” he added.