Chief of Staff to the President and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has disclosed that he faced intense pressure from the federal government when Nigeria’s legislature blocked a major foreign loan package on the grounds that the planned infrastructure investments failed to include the South-East geopolitical zone.
Speaking on Tuesday during an address to newly inaugurated commissioners of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) at a two-day induction programme in Abuja, Gbajabiamila said the loan proposal, submitted during his tenure as Speaker between 2019 and 2023 under the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, was initially rejected by lawmakers because it disproportionately excluded the South-East.
Gbajabiamila recalled that lawmakers, after “scrutinis[ing] the application with a fine-tooth comb,” discovered that the proposed foreign infrastructure loan would benefit all geopolitical zones except the South-East. “We refused to pass it for months and kept it in abeyance until we were able to extract the commitment of the government to include the South-East in the loan infrastructural distribution,” he said.
He said the decision to withhold approval for the loan was anchored on the principle of federal character, which seeks to ensure fairness and inclusion in the distribution of national resources, emphasising that it would have been unjust for one region to be left out of a programme funded by national borrowing.
“I remember vividly as Speaker and the government had sought approval for a foreign infrastructural loan… and discovered the loan was specific and covered all zones except the Southeast,” he said. Gbajabiamila added that, although “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.”
Gbajabiamila noted that excluding one region while others benefit from national loans not only undermines fairness but also creates the appearance of discrimination and can erode national cohesion. His comments come amid long-standing public discourse about the South-East’s marginalisation, particularly in infrastructure and development projects.
He further underscored the importance of the Federal Character Commission, arguing that its mandate extends beyond appointments to include oversight in budgeting and project distribution. According to Gbajabiamila, the loan controversy could have been avoided if the commission had earlier flagged the zone’s exclusion before the matter reached the National Assembly.
“This assignment demands courage, the courage to say no when pressured and to defend the Constitution even when it is inconvenient,” Gbajabiamila told commissioners, urging them to uphold fairness, inclusion, and national unity in their duties.
Earlier in the programme, the Executive Chairman of the FCC, Hulyat Omidiran, vowed that the commission would abandon a “business as usual” approach, promising strict adherence to its enabling laws, ethical conduct, and institutional discipline. “We shall discharge our responsibilities without fear or favour… guided by the rule of law, driven by national interest,” she said.
Also speaking, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, represented by a senior adviser, described the induction as a timely effort to strengthen governance and institutional performance.
