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By all fiscal indicators, 2024 should have marked a defining moment for Taraba State. This ought to be because federal allocations to the state surged dramatically, rising from N17.86 billion in 2023 to N56.1 billion in 2024. The sharp increase raised public expectations of better roads, functional schools, improved healthcare facilities and visible development across both urban centres and rural communities.
But the promise of progress, DAILY POST reports, has collided with a harsher reality. Rather than emerging as a model of fiscal turnaround, Taraba has been identified as Nigeria’s epicentre of abandoned federal government projects.
A recent report by BudgIT’s civic accountability platform, Tracka, reveals a troubling pattern in which public funds continue to disappear into unfinished structures, deserted construction sites and projects that exist only on budget documents.
Despite full disbursement of funds, Taraba recorded the highest number of abandoned federal projects in the country during the 2024 budget cycle.
With an estimated population of 3.6 million, the state had 298 federal projects captured in the 2024 budget. However, findings from Tracka’s monitoring paint a grim picture. Of the 96 projects tracked, only 46 were completed. Twenty-nine projects were abandoned outright, 12 were still ongoing, eight were not executed at all, while one project was reportedly fraudulently delivered.
DAILY POST observes that across several communities, half-built classroom blocks sit roofless years after commissioning ceremonies. Health centres remain locked, overgrown by weeds, long after funds were released for their completion. In such places, the statistics merely confirm what residents have known for years; funding alone does not translate into development.
The challenge, however, extends beyond Taraba. Tracka’s report shows that abandoned projects across five states were valued at N7.8 billion out of a total N8 billion released for those projects.
Taraba topped the abandoned projects index with 29.90 per cent, far ahead of Abia State at 20 per cent. Nasarawa followed with 10.53 per cent, while Adamawa and Ogun recorded 7.48 per cent and 7.14 per cent respectively. Notably, 17 states recorded no abandoned federal projects during the same tracking period.
For BudgIT, the implications are unmistakable. “These findings point to deep rooted accountability and oversight failures in public project execution,” the organisation stated, warning that increased funding without effective monitoring only magnifies waste.
Speaking on the report, Head of Tracka at BudgIT, Mr. Osiyemi Joshua, stressed that rebuilding public trust in government spending requires stronger oversight mechanisms and active citizen participation.
According to him, projects must be tracked from approval to completion, with clear sanctions for contractors and public officials who fail to deliver.
The report further observed that despite billions of naira collected annually, budgets approved and contracts awarded, many government projects across Nigeria still failed to produce tangible benefits for citizens. H said weak monitoring systems, poor contractor performance and limited consequences for non-delivery remain recurring problems.
For Taraba State, the numbers tell a sobering story: more money came in, but too many projects went nowhere.
“Until transparency and accountability rise to match the scale of public spending, abandoned projects may continue to define development not just in Taraba, but across communities nationwide,” said Uba Sanusi, a financial expert.
Another expert, Mallam Salisu Umar, who also expressed dismay at the inability of the projects to be executed or completed despite the federal government allocation, urged the authority to make public names of the contractors who were awarded the contracts.
“Left for me, I suggest that Tracka or the federal government should go ahead and make public the names of all those contractors that were awarded the contracts and failed to execute.
Apart from publishing their names, it will also be nice if the government will take further steps by compelling the contractors to go back to the sites or refund the money back to our government,” Umar suggested.
Taraba emerges Nigeria’s epicentre of abandoned federal projects despite increased allocations
