By Peter Ovie Akus
SIR: BudgIT, a civic organisation which promotes transparency and accountability in public finances, have raised an alarm that Nigerian lawmakers divert N100 billion annually from the country’s budget through constituency projects. This is worrisome and should not be swept under the carpet.
To begin with, it is an aberration for lawmakers to carry out constituency projects as the primary duty of a lawmaker is to make laws for the benefit of the people that he/she represents. The constitution also grants them the power of appropriation, investigation and confirmation or rejection of nominees to occupy appointive offices. But the peculiar nature of Nigerian politics and the desire by the Obasanjo administration to spread development to all the nooks and crannies of the nation after 29 years of infrastructural decay under military rulers with locust tendencies led to the birth of constituency projects for lawmakers.
I am not against constituency projects nor am I against the gargantuan sums voted in its favour. However, I believe that if the monies allocated for it every year in the annual budget are properly utilised rather than embezzled, misappropriated or diverted, Nigeria would have made meaningful progress in terms of infrastructural development.
Today, it is fashionable to see lawmakers sharing transistor radios, okadas, wheelbarrows, hoes and cutlasses, sewing machines and all what-not to their constituents in the name of empowerment. While a few lawmakers have engaged in capital projects, it is either uncompleted at the expiration of their tenure or it is done with shoddy materials which makes it decay after a few years.
It must be said that the attitude of some of the citizens doesn’t help matters. Some communities were reported to have rejected capital projects in favour of distribution of cash, perishable items like foodstuffs and inanities like burial ceremonies and cultural festivals.
It is time we all wake up and demand accountability from our lawmakers as regards the implementation of constituency projects. Let us demand that the monies be used for capital projects like construction of schools, primary healthcare centres, public toilets, roads, street lights, repair of classrooms, etc.
The metrics used to determine who is a beneficiary of constituency projects should be expanded to include all constituents rather than only party loyalists as is the norm.
Not all lawmakers have diverted funds meant for constituency projects or engaged in tokenism. Some have used theirs to carry out capital projects which have greatly benefited their constituents and will outlive their tenure of office. The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila and Senator Aisha Binani are examples of lawmakers who have acted in such regard and deserve commendation. Gbajabiamila has constructed and renovated roads, street lights, school buildings, primary healthcare centres, among many others in Surulere, Lagos. Senator Aisha Binani, who is the only female senator from the north in the current National Assembly, and the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Adamawa State has commissioned several boreholes, transformers and street lights in her Adamawa Central Senatorial district. Pundits have speculated that this could account for her massive popularity among the talakawas in the state.
If every lawmaker in Nigeria, both at the state and federal level should emulate both lawmakers, I dare say that Nigeria’s infrastructural deficit would be greatly reduced and the country would be set on the path of progress and prosperity.