Local contractors’ protest

IN recent weeks, there have been brickbats between the Federal Government and indigenous contractors over outstanding obligations. Recently, the protesting contractors operating under the aegis of All Indigenous Contractors Association of Nigeria (AICAN) barricaded the entrance of the Federal Ministry of Finance in Abuja. Chanting battle songs, they prevented the Minister of State for Finance, Doris Uzoka-Anite, from entering the complex. They accused the Federal Government of failing to pay them for completed projects, claiming that funds provided for this purpose in the 2024 and 2025 budgets had not been released, and that the prolonged delay had pushed many of their members into financial distress. Speaking during the protest, the president of AICAN, Jackson Nwosu, hinged the protest on mounting unpaid obligations, tightening cashflow conditions, rising loan defaults, and the seizure of assets belonging to contractors who borrowed to execute government projects. The standoff led to security personnel firing shots into the air to disperse the crowd.

Said Nwosu: “The government has failed to honour the agreement to pay contractors whose project details had been submitted and verified. Payments finalised before the closure of the payment portal at the end of December never reflected in our accounts.” According to him, claims by government officials that about 80 percent of the outstanding debts had been offset were false, as the actual payments made covered only about 30 percent to 40 percent of the verified claims. The issuance of payment warrants, he added, stopped in May 2025 while contractors continued to deliver projects without receiving funds, pushing total liabilities beyond N4 trillion.

On its part, the Federal Government indicated that it had paid the sum of N152 billion to local contractors for verified projects. In a statement, the Ministry of Finance said the payments were made after contracts passed multiple verification stages required under existing laws and regulations, which are designed to protect taxpayers’ funds and ensure accountability and transparency. While admitting that the delays had imposed financial strain on contractors, it urged continued dialogue and engagement to resolve outstanding disputes. But there was further tension on Thursday, January 29, as some lawyers under the banner of Concerned Lawyers for Probity and Justice backed up the indigenous contractors with a solidarity protest at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Abuja. Joined by members of an advocacy group, Enough is Enough Movement, the lawyers urged urgent action on the contractors’ demands, saying that the delay in payments had placed them and their families under severe strain.

No doubt, the optics of contractors with valid payment claims being forcibly dispersed at the Ministry of Finance is ugly and distressing, but this was entirely predictable. Somehow, the business of governance has acquired undue mystique, with otherwise simple and straightforward processes stretched to exhausting limits. If provision has been made for government contractors to be paid their outstanding entitlements, it cannot be a good argument to justify delays in payment with bureaucratese and red tape. While it is true that the extant laws allow for multiple layers of verification to ensure that taxpayers receive value for their money, this is no license for laziness, opacity and snail speed. In an increasingly automated system, efficiency is key, and is determined in large part by quick delivery of results. Payment for work already done, especially against the backdrop of unforgiving, “no-nonsense” bank loans, should not be such a difficult exercise. Sluggish movement of files from office to office, amid banter and gossip, isn’t the way to make Nigeria work. This is not the picture Nigeria wants to be painting in 2026.

Local contractors create jobs and in their case at least, there is no question of capital flight. If they do not receive payment for work done, or receive payment only after they have been physically and emotionally brutalised and traumatised, their ability to do business will be badly circumscribed. It is an open secret that often, those in the civil service cheat them, demanding kickbacks at every turn, and making project costs and estimates unduly high for the taxpayer. The logic is simple: if you are going to propitiate different civil service “gods” along the payment path, it makes sense to build this factor into your cost estimates. It is an unholy process that both the bribe giver and the bribe taker knows too well, and the country has not found a way to eliminate this culture.

Besides, in a country where Buy Nigeria is government singsong, it makes little sense to delay payments for executed contracts. The suggestion that local contractors are being maltreated precisely because of who they are is noxious, and every effort that can be made to achieve drastic change deserves quick consideration. The foregoing is, of course, not to rule out the place of dialogue, or suggest that protest and battle chants are always the way to go. The point is that delaying the payment of local contractors harms the economy. Just how can they grow when they don’t get their money in time? Surely, you cannot preach Buy Nigeria while frustrating local contractors. It is terrible calculation that just doesn’t add up. It must stop forthwith.