Following his earlier statement on the lack of transparency surrounding the ₦1 billion and ₦2 billion annually allocated to House of Representatives members and Senators respectively for Constituency Development Projects (CDPs), a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Daniel Onjeh, has responded to the reactions trailing his remarks, challenging legislators to come clean on project execution.
According to Onjeh, two federal legislators have, in the wake of his last release, and the revelation by Mr. David Ayodele Asalu, an APC chieftain from Osun State, admitted that these allocations do in fact exist.
He argued the defence that they do not receive the monies directly but only recommend the projects to agencies for execution falls short of absolving them of responsibility.
“The fact that lawmakers are allowed to dictate the implementing agency already compromises the process,” he said.
He explained this mechanism grants some legislators undue influence over how funds are disbursed, as they often arm-twist heads of the recommended agencies into awarding contracts to their preferred contractors.
He alleged these contractors, usually fronting for some members of the National Assembly themselves, are frequently paid in full even without delivering the projects, or at best, carrying out substandard work.
“Agency heads who resist these pressures are threatened with zero budgetary allocations in the following procurement year. That’s the crude reality,” Onjeh alleged
He called on the National Assembly members to publish, in full detail, the list of constituency projects they proposed for the current fiscal year, including the executing agencies, project locations, costs, and contractors involved.
“If the process is clean, there should be no hesitation. Transparency is the cornerstone of public trust,” he emphasised.
Onjeh, a former Chairman of the Governing Board of the Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu, recounted his firsthand experiences with what he described as the legislative abuse of agency systems.
He narrated how a House of Representatives member demanded full payment for a project he claimed had been completed, even though the procurement cycle for that year hadn’t yet begun.
In another case, a ₦450 million streetlight project purportedly executed in Koton-Karfe, Kogi State, was found non-existent during an oversight visit by the PRODA Board.
“My board insisted that rather than the outstanding payment for solar streetlight supplied, as captured in the 2021 budget, it should be payment for the supply of solar streetlights, and that was how we got the contractor to supply the solar streetlights,” Onjeh revealed.
“These are not isolated incidents,” Onjeh said. “They represent a broader trend where agencies are used as conduits for laundering public funds. Some federal lawmakers have weaponised the budgetary process, reducing oversight to a bargaining chip for personal enrichment.”
The former student activist and President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) further argued that this pattern of routing projects through various MDAs (Ministries, Departments, and Agencies) is a deliberate tactic by some members of the National Assembly to evade accountability.
According to him: “They hide behind bureaucratic smokescreens so their constituents can’t ask questions when nothing is delivered. By placing projects in obscure agencies, they insulate themselves from scrutiny while the real beneficiaries—ordinary Nigerians—remain in the dark.”
Highlighting the implications of this practice, Onjeh questioned why Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of the fuel subsidy removal savings.
“President Tinubu removed the subsidy to free up resources for development. But what we see is the height of callousness—billions supposedly earmarked for grassroots development vanish, while the people continue to suffer. Jobs that should come from these projects are nowhere to be found,” he said.
He criticised the legislature’s failure to live up to its constitutional oversight function. “They are meant to ensure that projects funded by taxpayers’ money are executed to completion, but instead they manipulate and compromise the process. Nigerians cannot continue to suffer in silence while those elected to serve them live in luxury, enriching themselves with funds meant for development.”
As a sustainable solution, Onjeh proposed that the Federal Government abolish the current model of allocating CDPs and Zonal Intervention Projects (ZIPs) through multiple MDAs.and instead establish a central agency, which he suggests could be named the Constituency Development and Zonal Intervention Projects Agency (CDZIPA).
This agency, he said, should be tasked with executing all CDPs and ZIPs recommended by federal lawmakers based on documented needs assessments.
This would centralise monitoring and evaluation, enhance transparency and make it easier for citizens to hold the system accountable.
Constituents would then be able to request information about specific projects using the Freedom of Information Act, including project costs, timelines, and contractors.
He further noted that the creation of such an agency would also generate thousands of jobs for Nigerians, through direct project execution, supervision, and third-party oversight. “More importantly, it will eliminate the backdoor deals that currently dominate the CDP landscape. It will empower citizens to know who to hold responsible when projects fail.”
He reiterated that the root of Nigeria’s underdevelopment lies not in a lack of resources, but in the deliberate mismanagement of those resources by a corrupt political elite. “Nigerians deserve to see where their money is going. If ₦1 billion is allocated to each House member every year, there should be evidence of life-changing infrastructure in every constituency,” he said.
Concluding, Onjeh declared: “This is not a partisan fight—it’s a moral one. If we don’t change how CDPs and ZIPs are managed, the circle of poverty, underdevelopment, and mistrust will continue. Let us stop making excuses for corruption and begin demanding the transparency and accountability that our democracy promises.”
