By Abubakar Ahmed
The recent revelation by a chieftain of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, Mr. Ayodele Asalu, regarding the current status of the federal lawmakers’ constituency project fund is no doubt distressing.
In a viral video sighted by this writer, Mr. Asalu claimed that the consistency project allowance of the House of Representatives members has risen from a paltry N200 million to an astonishing N1 billion while that of a Senator is now pegged at N2 billion respectively following the removal of petroleum subsidy by the federal government under the present regime of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Before 2024, it wasn’t like this. But after subsidy removal, federal allocations to states increased—and so did lawmakers’ project funds. If you see a lawmaker executing projects, don’t be fooled into thinking it’s from their personal pocket, he spoke in Yoruba.
“Take Osun State as an example, before now, an Honourable member’s allowance was less than N200 million. Today, nobody gets less than N1 billion. And no senator operates with less than N2 billion. These are facts, not exposés,” he said.
Before the revelation by the Osun APC chieftain, there was an exclusive report by a national daily that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had graciously increased the constituency allowance to N1billion per member. However, the reporter could not immediately ascertain how much the allowance for the senators was pegged. The report said the reviewed sum would be padded in the 2025 budget.
Recall that there has been proposal to review the fund for constituency projects known as Special Intervention Projects (SIP) from N100 billion to about 20 percent of the national budget. The argument adduced for the review by the proponents who were all lawmakers was that the N100 billion was static and insufficient to carry out meaningful constituency projects within the current economic realities. The move was widely criticized by many Nigerians who described it as ridiculous and smack of insensitivity on the part of the lawmakers.
It is therefore not surprising that Mr. Asalu’s revelation has been eliciting widespread public outrage and condemnation. The outrage stemmed from the fact that despite the huge amount said to have been released for constituency projects yearly, there is no significant development at the grassroot as poverty level kept increasing every day.
This situation is further compounded by lack of quality healthcare services, safe portable drinking water, electricity, good access roads and other basic amenities and infrastructures that will make life meaningful at the rural areas.
When former President Olusegun Obasanjo came up with the idea of constituency projects, many Nigerians welcomed the development believing that it would bring governance closer to people, especially those in rural communities. By the agreement, the federal government was supposed to set aside funds for the implementation of the projects through the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) now SDGs in agreement with the lawmakers.
These projects, which are developmental and meant for the grassroots, are often introduced by lawmakers for implementation in their constituencies. It is therefore expected that from 1999 to date, the rural areas should have been significantly transformed with the lawmakers working to complement the state governments in bringing dividends of democracy to the people.
But despite this leeway to better the standard of living of the citizens, there is virtually nothing on ground to show for this immense investment.
In Yobe State for instance, the poverty level has been astronomical with 72% of its populace, according to experts, living below the poverty line. The situation is exacerbated by communal insurgency and environmental conflicts occasioned by climate change which turned the hitherto vast arable agricultural land into desert.
The desert has further affected irrigation farming, depleted aquatic resources drying up rivers, streams, ponds and other water sources causing famine across the land. With this dire condition, and huge funds earmarked for constituency projects, it is expected that significant interventions would come from federal lawmakers from the state to ameliorate the suffering of the citizens.
However, what the state gets as projects are hardly enough to meet the needs of the people. More worrisome is the revelation by independent trackers and government anti corruption agencies especially the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) that some of the projects designated for the state and purportedly executed by contractors are just on papers and therefore non-existent. In some instances, the commission alleged that contracts were sub standardly executed, while in others, contractors disappeared and abandoned the job altogether.
For instance, the commission’s 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 reports left a heart rending outcome. Its officials in September 2021, sealed a warehouse and an Information Communication Technology centre in Potiskum Local Government Area for allegedly being used to hoard tricycles supplied under Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES) programme for Yobe South Senatorial District in 2020. The ICT Centre on the other hand, was allegedly in the custody of a legislator who refused to release the centre to a contractor to furnish it with ICT equipment. Also, in 2021, reports said an inspection team in Yobe discovered that a borehole and a 300 KVA/11KV transformer under a lawmaker’s constituency projects could not allegedly be found.
ICPC Team B leader in charge of that investigation, Laban Emmanuel was quoted as listing components of the project contract awarded in 2019 to include overhead tank, filter, motorised borehole, generator, generator house and a tap stand which the sum of N69.2 million was released after tax and administrative deductions.
Similarly, in 2022, the ICPC team tracking the execution of constituency projects said there was no evidence of the execution of eight projects in Potiskum/Nangere Federal Constituency of the state.
The projects include two contracts for the supply of motorcycles, two others for Peace Building Training for Stakeholders, and four contracts for the Supply of agricultural implements and equipment. So, many of such instances abound in a state which citizens are battling to survive and its government already overburdened by calamities and requires collaboration to meet the social services needs.
As many have variously pointed out, the constituency projects are but conduit pipes and hardly better the lives of the people they were meant for. Funds meant for these projects often do not reach the intended beneficiaries, but misappropriated, or are diverted into private pockets. As analysts have severally pointed out also, the selection of the projects is often based on political considerations rather than actual development needs, leading to a distortion of development priorities.
What is more, the lack of accountability in the implementation of the projects makes it difficult to track progress and ensure that funds are used appropriately. That is why it is imperative for the people who these funds and projects are meant should device ways of tracking them while also making efforts to hold their representatives accountable. To the lawmakers from Yobe, there is urgent need for soul-searching especially with endemic poverty in the land, to begin to give to the people what rightly belong them.
From available data, the salaries of legislators are enough to keep them and their families going, it is therefore uncalled for to further make life difficult for the people by out rightly stealing from them.
Abubakar wrote in from Katsina, Katsina State.
