Since the idea of constituency projects for lawmakers was introduced during former President Olusegun Obasanjo?s administration, it has been highly criticised by stakeholders with many calling for the policy to be discontinued. More than two decades after, the constituency projects have not disappeared from the budget lexicon. As the years go by, the idea has been subjected to all manner of abuse with the intensity for its scrapping reaching roof top. In this report, Assistant News Editor, Weekend, GBENGA SALAU, interrogates the implication of lawmakers using moribund and non-relevant agencies of government to execute constituency projects.

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As debate over the legality of constituency projects approved for lawmakers continues to rage, many of the jobs, it has been discovered, are being executed through moribund agencies and departments of government who do not have either the expertise or capacity to supervise the contractors to ensure that the works are done according to specification. This is one of the reasons many Nigerians complain the trillions of naira sunk into such projects are not impacting the citizens who are meant to be the beneficiaries.

An analysis of the details of the 2024 Federal Government?s budget by Tracka, a unit under BudgIT, showed that over 2,558 projects worth N624b were allocated to agencies outside their mandate. It added that the National Assembly inserted 7,447 projects valued at N2.24 trillion in the 2024 budget.

In its report, Budgit Tracka revealed that between 2009 and 2019, over N1 trillion was allocated for constituency projects across Nigeria. The unit said it tracked 15,859 constituency projects in 7,589 communities across the country as of 2019. It further said that its findings showed that 7,000 projects across 26 states were completed while over 200 projects worth billions of naira were either abandoned or uncompleted.

The policy of constituency projects started during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, when Nigeria returned to civilian rule after many years of military dictatorship. The Obasanjo administration believed that the projects would help to bridge infrastructure gaps, especially at the grassroots where most of the works are to be done. Then, the belief was that such projects would directly impact the people, especially those in rural communities, as a way of bringing governance closer to them.

Although some stakeholders were against the idea, wondering why members of the National Assembly should directly determine what projects come to their constituency in addition to influencing the would-be contactors, an agreement was reached, which birthed the yearly practice of the Federal Government setting aside a huge amount of money to implement the projects through the Office of Special Adviser to the President on MDGs now SDGs. These projects, which are meant to boost development in local communities, are introduced by the lawmakers for implementation in their constituencies.

For instance, the National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi, Niger State, was the agency responsible for one of the constituency projects in Ikeja, Lagos State. The projectfacilitated by James Faleke, the legislator representing Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, is for the provision and supply of solar powered streetlights at Oduduwa Crescent and Way, Ikeja GRA, Lagos. A perusal of the agency?s specific functions as stipulated on its site revealed that it has the research mandate into the problems of rice, maize, grain legumes, sugarcane as well as those of farming systems throughout Nigeria. The mandate also include include conducting research into genetic improvement and improved production system of rice, soyabean, sugarcane, acha and castor, as well as design and or fabrication of agricultural implement and equipment.

Another of such projects is the construction of Ojulowo Imoshe road, also in Ikeja, which was executed through the National Centre for Agriculture Mechanisation (NCAM), Kwara State, an agency with the sole assignment of accelerating agriculture mechanisation in Nigeria. Similarly, the rehabilitation of Modupe Johnson Street, Surulere, was executed by Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), an agency of government officially saddled with the responsibility of establishing, licensing, regulating and operating highly efficient free zones, as the major driver of government?s initiative to diversify the Nigerian economy.

The situation is not limited to Lagos State. If those mentioned above were in the past, similar recent projects included in the 2024 budget are the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) allocated N5billion for the procurement and distribution of official vehicles to some traditional rulers in the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria and the Nigeria Institute of Oceanography and Marine Research (NIOMR) allocated N2.32b to construct a 3.5km road from the Methodist Church, Ibu, to the Eri River.

While some of the agencies may have the capacity to supervise the project, they are far removed from the project site, which hampers the ability to monitor the project to ensure contract specifications are followed and value for money for the citizens and government that awarded the contract. For instance, the Federal Co-operative College, Oji River, Enugu State executed the rehabilitation of Idowu Street in Amuwo-Odofin Local Council Development Area, Lagos, which was facilitated by the senator representing the zone at the time the job was done, Adeola Olamilekan. A background check on the college revealed that it is an institution that offers national and higher national diploma programmes, but does not offer any academic programme in engineering. The institution listed the courses it offers to include cooperative economics and management, banking and finance, accounting, business administration and management, home economics and rural development and computer science.

Also, the Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute, Abuja, supervised the construction of township roads, drainage reinforcement and solar street lights in selected locations within the South West zone. The project was facilitated by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, when he was in the House of Representatives as the speaker.

Commenting on the culture by members of the National Assembly to execute constituency projects through moribund agencies, Ayo Ladipo said there was no way a cereal research institute would insert training for traditional rulers or solar street light in its budgets circular while submitting its budget to the National Assembly because it has no justification for It.

?But the items enter into the budget when the National Assembly decided to run amok, doing whatever they like with the budget. And Nigerians must begin to speak up and caution them against this thing because it encourages the procurement process of awarding projects to companies that do not have the capacity to do it, leading to misappropriation and under implementation of projects, which at the end affects everybody.?

Blaming the situation on why some of these government agencies are not delivering on their core mandate to the people, Ladipo said: ?Some of these research institutes, the budget for their core mandate is way lesser that the constituency projects fund inserted in their budgets by the lawmakers, may be fraction of 10 to 15 per cent of the entire amount that they have to spend for capital projects. And you start seeing where our problems lie and the source of Nigeria?s underdevelopment.?

Also lamenting the situation, the Executive Director of CISLAC, Musa Rafsanjani, said the lawmakers were into the habit of deliberately inserting the projects into the budget after going to the agencies to negotiate with them. ?So, it is deliberate. It is not a mistake. The members know what they are doing.?

He expressed worry that constituency project is taking the attention of the National Assembly members away from concentrating on the key legislative work, which is to make law for peace, development and good governance of the country as well as supervise government programmes, projects and policy and promoting compliance with the law.

?It is the duty of the lawmakers to ensure that they carry out effective and responsible oversight. Their duty is also to actually represent the people, taking input from them and giving them feedback, which we call accountability. All these key important legislative works are enshrined in our law for legislators.

?Constituency project appears to be dominating their priority. Once the budget period comes, the only preoccupation of the lawmakers is how to corner projects into the budget under the so-called constituency projects. And they get an agency that is not even relevant or competent to execute that projects,? Rafsanjani lamented.

On some of the agencies not being able to supervise the projects properly since they are far removed from the sites, Ladipo said: ?It is very valid and there are evidences in the 2020 audit report where about N320billion projects were paid for without any evidence of completion. Of course, a cereal research institute in Niger State has limited staff that can cater for its primary duties. So, where is the capacity for that agency to start doing monitoring for all the projects that are across the nation? Fund to monitor the projects are not captured in their budget. So, they probably have to depend on hearsay, and at the end contractors do shoddy work and people are paid for jobs that are not worth being paid for. Beyond limited manpower, the technical capacity of the manpower to supervise a particular kind of projects is also an issue,? Ladipo stated.

Some stakeholders expressed concern that all these are happening despite the fact that the country has a procurement procedure that is meant to regulate award of contracts for transparency and to check illegalities.

Chairman of CACOL, Debo Adeniran, stated that the lawmakers don?t follow the procurement procedure, which requires a call for project bidding with the bids opened in the presence of stakeholders and relevant professional bodies as observers.

?And the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) is not over-sighting that. Even many of us in the civil society organisations are not petitioning the appropriate agency that the procurement processes should be followed, that they should be prosecuted. We should be more vigilant to ensure that there is value for money all the time,? Adeniran stated.

Ladipo wondered why a cereal research institute would be executing solar street lights far away from its location.

?Ironically, the National Assembly often say that its job is to ensure that everything works properly but then when the budget gets to their desk, that is when everything becomes horrific. So, when it gets to its desk, they insert, they look for the agencies where they feel they have some sort of control and they insert these projects arbitrarily into their budgets.That?s why issues like that arise.?

On the implication of non-compliance with the procurement procedure, Adeniran stated: ?That is the reason the projects are poorly or not supervised at all.

Also, nobody measures the company?s capacity because the initial pre-qualifications were not done as the contracts were not advertised in the first place. Thus, the pre-qualifications of the company, what equipment do they have, what facilities do they have, what technology know-how do they have, were not examined. That is why many of the projects are abandoned. So many things go wrong.

?Sometimes, they construct a bridge that collapses as soon as one or two vehicles pass over it. They construct water boreholes that will never supply water. They construct roads that are just painted with black oil, rather than asphalt. Even school buildings, the roof of which caves in on the students. Therefore, there is a lot of Illegalities and shoddy execution, particularly owing to inadequate qualifications of those who execute the projects. Basically, it is the absence of checks and balances that causes all of these. The legislature that is supposed to perform the oversight function is executing the project, appointing contractors, and inspecting the jobs done.?

Recently, the ICPC accused the lawmakers of diverting funding, specifically indicting senators of diverting over N120 billion meant for the 2021 constituency projects in their different constituencies.

On the appropriateness of lawmakers executing projects, Adeniran described the idea as a misnomer in a democracy, arguing that it jeopardises the principle of separation of powers.

?It is not for legislators to execute development projects in their area. They are not supposed to provide infrastructures on behalf of governments. It is the job of the executive. Legislators are to make laws, amend laws, repeal laws, and perform oversight functions over the executive. And in the course of performing their oversight functions, if they discover that some projects are not properly executed, they are to caution, and that is where checks and balances come in.

?What legislators ought to do is to alert the executive that my constituency wants this kind of project, and it should be captured in the budget. It is not for them to demand for money, and it is not for them to appoint contractors. Usually, constituency projects turn out to be jobs for the boys.

?So, it is unfortunate. The ICPC started monitoring the execution of constituency projects sometimes ago, and a number of legislators were indicted. What we didn?t do is to follow diligently to ensure that all of those that have been captured are properly investigated and prosecuted. And that is the reason they went away with the blue murder. So, it doesn?t matter what any of their constituents demands. They are not supposed to execute project.

?What we believe can be done is to return the principles of democracy to their original format, such that the legislator will be able to oversight the functions of the executive. So that if anything goes wrong, then it will be brought to the fore.

?Then anti-corruption agencies like ICPC can monitor such projects by establishing anti-corruption and transparency units in all the local councils so that whenever anybody is trying to execute a constituency project, it will be monitored from the beginning to the end. Otherwise, we will continue to deceive ourselves while the commonwealth of the country will be going down the drain through what is called the constituency projects.?

Rafsanjani agreed with Adeniran, stating that constituency project has no legal backing. ?It is a project in which huge billions of naira are spent but not accounted for. No one accounts for the money that has been given for constituency projects. No one is supervising or evaluating the constituency projects.?

He further lamnted that constituency projects are not done on the basis of need assessment from the constituents.

?It is a personal project, canvassed, lobbied and delivered by the representative in the name of constituency project. That is why you will hardly find any local council where there is a kind of discussion on how to sustain the project after the member is gone. So, it starts and ends with that member representing that constituency.

?It is conceived to showcase that I brought in this to my constituency, I brought that to my constituency and its implementation are completely shrouded in fraud because there is no proper procurement process and no due diligence. Many of the projects are duplicated year in, year out, as part of the fraud.

?And, in any case, it is not their work. If they want to be an executive member, they should contest election to be president, governor or local council chairman. Otherwise, as a legislature, they cannot be doing the work of executive.?

To get reactions to why the National Assembly is in the habit of executing constituency projects through moribund and non-relevant agencies, among other issues, the chairmen of the Senate and House of Representative committees on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Adaramodu Adeyemi and Mr. Akin Rotimi, were contacted but none of them responded as at press time. They neither pick their calls nor respond to the messages sent to their Whatsapp. (The Guardian)

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