Abdu Rafiu contributes The RAM column to USAfricaonline.com
The exit of Wale Edun from the Bola Tinubu administration is too dramatic. Yes, stories went the rounds late last year that he might leave, cloaked in official language of “on health grounds.” Although he was at a point known to have health issues.
There were reports in October last year that he was rushed ill to Britain and could not attend the IMF/World Bank meeting. He was out of public glare for a while, undoubtedly because of his health. Some were suggesting that his exit could be as a result of differences which may have arisen between him and his principal, the President, resulting in an embarrassing altercation between the duo at one of the Federal Executive Council meetings. Oxygen was driven into the speculation to make it go viral when after Edun turned in his resignation letter on Tuesday April 21, 2026 and the Villa was tongue-tied. No word about his exit should have been allowed to go out until the Presidency was ready with its own statement. The delay put the government in bad light. The departure of a finance minister ordinarily is not the exit of just a public functionary but the leaving of a really ranking officer. Added to Edun’s portfolio is the Coordinating Minister of the Economy.
In the United Kingdom, the Chancellor of the Exchequer ranks next to the Prime Minister. While the latter lives in 10 Downing Street, the chancellor resides next to him at 11 Downing Street and is described as the official residence of the Second Lord of the Treasury since 1828. It was built alongside that of the Prime Minister, that is Number 10, in 1682.
The history of that is that in the days of old the chancellor lived so close by such that the Queen could have ready access to the treasury and the chancellor was regarded as the Queen’s treasurer, Her Majesty’s Treasury. In the modern days since the Prime Minister swears by the Queen’s name, or the King’s as the case may be, it should follow that the Chancellor lives next door to Her Majesty’s Prime Minister. The chancellor is the shadow deputy prime minister till this day.
In addition to the inexcusable altercation, no matter what, were complaints over poor and hindering release of funds by contractors and concern by the House of Representatives before whom Edun and junior Minister Doris Uzoka-Anite were taken up on slow disbursements of funds for the execution of the budget and the attendant fears that budgets overlapping might shake investors’ confidence in the economic performance of the country.
The encounter led to Doris Uzoka-Anita being eased out of office.
The report of Edun himself to the House must clearly have embarrassed the Presidency and analysts concluded that his days in government were numbered, the statement coming barely three months after the President spoke on the subject of borrowing. The President said to Buhari Organization stakeholders visiting him at the Villa in September last year that revenue target had been met and the country was no longer borrowing. In his words: “Nigeria is not borrowing. We have met our revenue target for the year and we met it in August.” But Edun appearing before the Committee on Finance and National Planning in December, barely three months later, on the 2026-2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework spoke contradicting the President. He said the Administration was likely to miss its 2025 revenue target by about N30 trillion Naira and had, in fact, borrowed about N14. 1 trillion to bridge the fiscal gap.
Edun wants to see himself as a technocrat in the image of Gamaliel Onosode who was known for rigour and impeccable integrity. Always in his elements grappling with figures, he went to the National Assembly waving data before the honourable, probing and unrelenting Committee of the House. Edun would hardly want to see himself as a politician, especially amidst a cloud of worries among the enlightened populace in the early days of the Administration that the engine of public spending may have broken loose.
Wale Edun, a competent technocrat, is one person who would want to scrutinise every document, every cheque brought before him, which in effect is capable of slowing down things. A balance was what was called for, what Aremo Segun Osoba was wont to term speed and accuracy. Edun was wrong in not clearing in advance his statement before the House Committee with his principal. Both the President and his minister must be seen to be speaking from the same page on any issue. It is the President who bears ultimate responsibility before the nation, not the unelected ministers.
