Group carpets FG over alleged contractual default

A human rights group, Joint Action for Good Governance (JAGG) has flayed the Federal Government of Nigeria for reneging on agreed payment of monies owed local contractors.

In a statement jointly signed by JAGG’s National Vice President Comrade Abdulwaheed Odunuga and the National Secretary Adekunle Aderibigbe on Monday, the group lampoons government for deliberately stifling local contractors.

JAGG maintained that it is wrong for government to continually service foreign debts, and refused to pay local contractors who had already fulfilled a contractual agreement.

The statement reads in parts,“It has come to the notice of the Joint Action for Good Governance (JAGG) that the Federal Government of Nigeria, through its various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), has continued in a most reprehensible manner to owe billions of naira to local contractors, who have dutifully and patriotically executed infrastructural and developmental projects across the federation.

“This unconscionable neglect and refusal to honour contractual obligations is not only a breach of good faith, it is an economic crime against the Nigerian people.

“While the government boasts daily of increasing internally generated revenue and embarks on borrowing sprees, mortgaging the future of unborn generations.

“It has criminally refused to pay Nigerian contractors who committed their resources, took loans at back-breaking interest rates, and delivered on national assignments.”

The group also cited the fact that if the defaulting culture continues it may hamper development and pose negative impact on local content growth.

“How does a government that claims to be promoting local content turn around to suffocate local contractors under the weight of avoidable debts?

“How do we speak of economic recovery, job creation, and national development, when indigenous contractors, many of whom are small and medium scale businesses, are left to rot in debt, despair, and bankruptcy?

“Let it be made abundantly clear: a contract entered into and executed in accordance with the law creates enforceable obligations.

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“The continuous default of the contractual agreement by the government constitutes a breach of contract and a deliberate sabotage of livelihoods. In a sane and lawful society, government ought to be the first respecter of agreements and not a serial defaulter.

“To make matters worse, while these contractors groan in pain, battling unpaid loans, rising inflation, and a collapsing Naira, the same government embarks on wasteful foreign trips, lavish summits, and elite privileges that do not translate into any measurable benefit for the people.

“This is morally bankrupt, economically ruinous, and legally unjustifiable.” JAGG said.

The group however, enumerated some demands which includes; immediate publication of all verified debts owed to local contractors across MDAs, with timelines for liquidation; a Presidential Directive mandating the Ministry of Finance and the Budget Office to commence immediate disbursement to verified contractors; an independent audit of all unpaid contracts, to ensure transparency and eliminate corruption in payment processes; and a legislative action to criminalize undue delay in contract payments beyond 60 days post-verification.

“Failure to act swiftly on these demands will not only reinforce the image of a government at war with its own citizens, but it will compel affected stakeholders, civil society organizations, and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to seek judicial redress against the Federal Government and complicit MDAs.

“Enough of the economic oppression. Enough of the policy hypocrisy. A government that pays foreign creditors while abandoning its own local businesses has lost the moral right to speak of patriotism or development.

“Justice must not only be done — it must be seen to be done, especially to those who have served Nigeria in good faith.” JAGG retorted.