TAJUDEEN Abbas, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has been offering a lame defence about the role of Nigerian lawmakers in the implementation of constituency projects. Sounding defiant at the inauguration of some constituency projects attracted by the immediate past Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, in Lagos, the incumbent derided critics of the scheme. It is disappointing that Nigeria’s No. 4 man is under the illusion that parliament is effective when it hijacks the duties of the executive arm of government.
Abbas categorically said lawmakers would continue to undertake the projects. “By tailoring projects to local contexts, we ensure that development is not just a concept discussed in the halls of the legislature, but a reality experienced in the streets, villages and towns in Nigeria,” he said.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo introduced constituency projects in 1999 as Zonal Intervention Projects for the 469 members of the National Assembly. The projects nominated by lawmakers are to be undertaken by the MDAs as part of their capital projects. This creates tensions between the two arms of government.
Claiming that he is encouraged by “the many success stories” associated with the projects in the past two decades, the Speaker added that he would revive the Constituency Development Fund Bill in NASS to entrench the scheme.
To say that constituency projects are a success story is stretching the argument. Instead, they are a political scheme of self-aggrandisement. Nigeria has a glaring infrastructure deficit, which the World Bank puts at 30 per cent of GDP, or 40 per cent short of the recommended 70 per cent-to-GDP ratio. The African Development Bank estimates that Africa’s largest economy requires $3 trillion over the next 30 years to bridge the shortfall.
Beyond the deficit, the projects are a brazen-faced usurpation of the role of the executive.
Most of the projects, including the construction of town halls, worship centres and boreholes are poorly conceived and shabbily implemented. At the end of their tenure, some lawmakers remove the name of government from the projects and attribute it to themselves; some others discontinue the projects altogether. This is state capture.
The worst aspect is the corruption bedeviling it. Projects are repeated several times in annual budgets without implementation. The immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari, lamented five years ago that in the 10 years to 2019, NASS members received N1 trillion for constituency projects without result. The money went into private pockets.
In 2023, a senator complained during a plenary session that the N100 million he received annually for constituency projects as a Rep is inadequate again.
In a 2022 report, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, detailed widespread corruption in the projects in 17 states. These included the inflation of contracts, awarding of contracts by lawmakers to their relations, non-supply of motorcycles, use of sub-standard products, switching of projects from one state to another and abandonment of site after receiving payment by contractors.
In July 2022, BudgIT, civic-tech NGO, questioned the allocation of N58.2 billion of the N100 billion earmarked annually for constituency projects on empowerment projects, labelling them vague.
As such, Nigerian lawmakers have bastardised the concept of constituency projects.
To stem the rot in Kenya, the country’s parliament in 2021 recommended an audit of all the abandoned constituency projects and their structural integrity. That is a transparent solution; Nigeria should adopt it immediately. Before funds are released for new projects, a committee should verify all the previous contracts and the money allocated to them.
Rather than nebulous empowerment programmes, lawmakers should concentrate on attracting projects like security formations, industries, power projects, railway routes and stations, dams, and assembly plants to drive grassroots development.
