Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff (CoS) to President Bola Tinubu, says he fought for months to ensure the inclusion of the south-east in federal project loan during his time as the speaker of the house of representatives.
Gbajabiamila served as speaker of the green chamber between 2019 and 2023, during the late former President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term.
The Buhari era was reportedly marked by sustained public complaints and debates over alleged marginalisation of the south-east region.
Speaking at the opening of a two-day induction programme for the newly inaugurated commissioners of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) in Abuja on Tuesday, Gbajabiamila said the government at that time was unhappy with him for refusing to approve the foreign infrastructure loan that excluded the south-east region.
The former speaker said the house, under his leadership, rejected the loan request after discovering that the proposed infrastructure projects were spread across all geopolitical zones except the south-east.
He said the lawmakers stood their ground for several months on the loan request until the executive agreed to include the south-east in the project distribution.
“The members of the house scrutinised the application with a fine-tooth comb and discovered the loan was specific and covered all zones except the south-east,” he said.
“We refused to pass it for months and kept it in abeyance until we were able to extract the commitment of government to include the south-east in the loan infrastructural distribution.”
Gbajabiamila said the decision was guided by the principles of federal character and fairness, noting that it would have been unjust for a region to be excluded from the benefits of a loan that would ultimately be repaid by the entire country, including that same region.
He added that excluding one region when others are benefiting from a national loan creates the appearance of discrimination and undermines national cohesion.
“Even though the government of the day was not happy with me, I had a job to do to ensure that federal character was embedded in the application of the loan,” he said.
According to him, such situations underscore the critical role of the FCC beyond political appointments, extending to the equitable distribution of infrastructural projects and social services.
The president’s chief of staff said the commission has a quiet but important responsibility in budget scrutiny and in identifying imbalances early, stressing that the loan dispute could have been avoided if the FCC had flagged the inequity before the matter reached the national assembly.
Gbajabiamila urged the commissioners to approach their duties with courage and a strong sense of national responsibility, reminding them that the FCC represents an internal layer of checks and balances within the executive arm of government.
“This assignment demands courage — the courage to say no when pressured and to defend the Constitution even when it is inconvenient,” he said.
He added that upholding fairness and inclusion through the federal character principle is essential to sustaining unity and public trust in the Nigerian state.
