PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to the Independent Corrupt Practices (and other related offences) Commission (ICPC) to probe the disbursement and expenditure of a whopping N1 trillion budgeted for constituency projects over the past decade is commendable. Many Nigerians have lost confidence in governments in the country over the years because there have been little to show for management of public finance. Politicians in the executive and the legislature are seen as parasites who feed fat at the expense of the general public.
It is particularly inexplicable that lawmakers who are constitutionally saddled with checking on the excesses of the executive, ensuring that ministers judiciously expend budget provisions, have since illegally joined in what seems a looting spree. One such way of drilling a hole in the national treasury is the creation of constituency project line of expenditure unknown to our laws. Instead of limiting themselves to representing the people in providing oversight over activities of the executive, the national lawmakers have chosen to blackmail the executive in permitting them to play executive roles.
The spat on this has been on between both arms of government since the inception of this Fourth Republic. This is not only morally wrong and constitutionally indefensible, but equally inexpedient. It’s impossible to be an effective watchdog and at the same time put up projects, nominate contractors and supervise the projects. While the lawmakers have tried to draw a very thin line between their roles and the executive in this wise, it amounts to hiding behind a finger. In practice, the lawmakers have always insisted on doing more than identifying the projects and their locations. It has been easy for the largely incompetent contractors engaged by them to arm-twist officials of the Federal Ministry of Works, threatening to shoot down budgetary provisions at appropriation time.
Lawmakers lack the capacity to award and supervise contracts. The argument that less than half the N100 billion budgeted every year for constituency projects was released notwithstanding, we still support the move for a thorough probe. What are the legislators afraid of? Why are they angry if their contention is correct? At best, the probe would bear them out. In any case, the ICPC probe would then ascertain the extent of work on the litany of abandoned projects nationwide. We need to know what projects are where; the extent of work done, who the contractors are, when last they were on site and how much has been released. It might not be one size for all. The public deserves to know those who have been serving them conscientiously, even if they have been drawing the funds illegally, while those who have been deceiving them, the self-serving, should be exposed and the ill-gotten wealth recovered from them.
Going forward, the letters and spirit of the constitution should be obeyed to the letter. Getting lawmakers mixed up in performance of executive function does violence to the spirit of presidentialism, at the heart of which is Separation of Powers as propounded by Monsieur Montesquieu. Our lawmakers must be content with their assigned roles, ensuring that departments and agencies of government function optimally.
We urge the ICPC to be thorough in its investigation, leaving no stones unturned. It is not enough to expose the evil doers, it also has the responsibility of bringing them to justice. One trillion Naira is a lot of money, more than half the total capital estimates for the 2020 fiscal year. At a time that we are confronted with so much external debt and threatened with being ensconced in a debt trap; when revenue shortage is threatening the economy’s health and unemployment has been identified as a major cause of soaring crime and insecurity, all those who contributed to the sorry state should not be spared.
Besides, the task of sanitising the society must start now. It is impossible to plot a way out of the morass without ethical reorientation. The coming generation is beginning to accept the evil as good. Values for which Nigeria is known have been thwarted and most young people are being drafted into the rat race. If Nigeria is to regain its lofty position in Africa and reinstated in the consciousness of others as a country where probity reigns, we must begin to punish wrong and extol right. The reorientation battle should not be left for President Buhari alone. All organs, tiers and institutions of state must be enlisted. The starting point is the federal legislature long regarded as a drag on the economy. The time for the National Assembly to team up with the executive to tame the corruption monster is now, that the ninth Assembly has pledged cooperation with President Buhari in achieving his administration’s goals.
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