- Written by EDITOR
AS
Nigerians bemoan the level of corruption in governments’ finances, it
is pertinent to admit that the so-called constituency projects are some
of those practices that breed corruption, expand the avenues of waste
and must be stopped immediately. Mohammed Alli Ndume, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), reignited concerns over this the other day when he said that the National Assembly had budgeted N900 billion for constituency projects since 2004. The submission points up this dimension of government expenditure and a possible bleeding of the national economy. For, despite the huge sum budgeted for constituency projects, there is really little or nothing concrete to justify the financial outlay except perhaps huge billboards announcing some inconsequential deeds by some legislators.
It would be recalled that the constituency project as an idea was initiated by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration in its first tenure and had been appropriated as an Executive Act Special Intervention Fund. The amount, put in the region of N100 billion per annum, was ostensibly meant to foster a healthy inter-government relationship between the Executive and Legislature as well as assist in providing basic infrastructure in various constituencies of the elected members of the National Assembly. Constituency projects may include roads, water, schools and scholarship schemes, health centres, meeting halls, amongst others. Yet, these are social needs that government routinely budgets for at the federal, state and local government levels.
Besides, other reasons have been given to justify the constituency project and the need for its formalisation through an Act of the National Assembly. One is that the level of public consciousness is such that the electorate expect their representatives to bring some facilities home as democracy dividends. As a result, it is not a bad idea to grant elected members of the National Assembly that opportunity to contribute to grassroots development. Secondly, that the money is not directly disbursed to the lawmakers as it is domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria and its use is contingent upon approval by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs which vet implementation before payments are made to the various contractors. But in a peculiarly Nigerian style, it is now riddled with corruption.
Those who have seen the abuse of the idea, are justified in seeing the lawmakers as being aggrandized by constituency projects. The argument that it is an aberration as the constitution is clear about the duty of the elected members of the National Assembly which is essentially to make laws for the good governance of the country as well as perform oversight functions over the executive organ of government is incontrovertible. Thus, implementing constituency projects no matter the finesse is tantamount to usurpation of the executive functions of government including the functions of local governments set up to advance development at the local level. It is to be noted that the alleged unfettered freedom of the lawmakers to choose contractors to implement the projects and the subversion of the Public Procurement Act purge the process of whatever accountability measures that are administered by the ministries. It is for this reason that constituency projects are regarded as free money for the legislators.
The conduct of public affairs calls for horizontal accountability, the capacity to check the illegality of other state institutions in situations of encroachment and corruption. Needless to say that constituency projects are an encroachment on the functions of the executive in the federal, state and local governments. Expenditure on them in an environment that is rife with corruption is mainly an expansion of corruption avenues for both the lawmakers and the executive arm and therefore should be discontinued.
Constituency projects were also a product of political pragmatism on the part of the executive to court the loyalty of the lawmakers and whittle down their oversight and meddlesomeness in the activities of the executive at the centre. This has also been replicated at the state level in the country at an alarming rate. It corrupts and compromises the entire democratic structure and culture. In fact, the state legislatures function at the pleasure of the governors whose activities they merely rubber-stamp. Indeed, the lawmakers are yet to prove their mettle in the performance of their statutory function of lawmaking. Significant bills are not fast-tracked. For example, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has been handled tardily. The overlap of function that constituency projects entail impinges on the jurisdictions of institutions of the state and government’s structure conceived of as a three-tier entity. Since corruption is endemic in Nigeria, it is the duty of all who wish the country well to plug the leakage in the system. Budgeting for constituency projects amounts to creating a cesspit of corruption and, therefore, should be scrapped.
Above all, the entire legislative architecture needs to be reviewed. Nigerian lawmakers sit for not more than 181 days in a year and lean heavily on the national purse, a fact that has made contest for seats in the bi-cameral legislature a do-or-die affair, attracting the most unsuitable persons to the hallowed chambers.
As this newspaper first advocated, there is a compelling need to restructure the legislature and make legislators work part-time. The incumbent lawmakers should therefore not be further aggrandized by some nondescript constituency projects.
The way the National Assembly and even state assemblies have fared since the inception of this republic has been most unedifying. Members can do better. And they can do without such further distractions as constituency projects.
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