A bill seeking to set aside 20 percent of the
country’s annual budget for constituency projects scaled through second reading
at the Senate yesterday.
If the bill becomes law, the constituency projects will get at least
N1.4 trillion out of the 7.3trillion 2017 budget estimates to be presented to
the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday.
The constituency projects are mainly for provision of feeder roads,
schools rehabilitation, building of market stalls, boreholes, provision of empowerment
items such as sewing machines, grinding machines, knitting machines as well as
vehicles including motorcycles, tricycles and cars.
Lawmakers will insert the
projects under subheads in the budgets of ministries and agencies that they
supervise. The agencies are expected to execute the projects based on
specification and guidance by benefitting lawmakers.
The ‘Constituency Projects Bill,
2016’ sponsored by Senator Stella Oduah (PDP, Anambra) seeks to grant legal
backing to the provision for constituency projects in the annual budget of the
Federation by a minimum of 20%.
Oduah said: “One of the unique
features of our democratic journey so far is the concept of ‘Constituency
Projects’. Available statistics show that 70 per cent of Nigerians live in the
rural areas and the intention of the bill is to ensure that good governance is
delivered to these crucial areas.
“The bill is also intended to
correct the top-bottom approach of governance and replace it with the bottom
top approach. Constituency project in recent time is one of the ways to attract
federal presence to our people,”she said.
She said if not for these
projects, majority of federal constituencies would not have a single federal
project due to lopsided nature of project allocation in the budget.
“The constituency project is not
peculiar to Nigeria alone. There are similar mechanisms in other developing
countries. For instance, the constituency development fund has been
institutionalized in Kenya, Uganda, India and Tanzania,”she said.
Contributing to the debate, the
Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Olusola Adeyeye advised that the 20 percent
should be based on capital projects.
“This is not money given to
Senators or Reps, it is money meant for specific projects. At the moment, it is
N100billion for 109 Senatorial Districts and 360 Federal constituencies. That’s
1.5 percent of the Federal Budget,” he said.
In his remark, the Senate
President, Bukola Saraki, said constituency projects ensure equity in the
distribution of federal projects.
“I don’t think there is anything
that ensures equity in the country like the constituency projects. Our
responsibility is to provide the projects to our constituencies, full stop,”he
said.
He referred the bill to the
committees on Finance and Appropriation for further legislative actions with a
4-week time frame.
N1.4tr (20 % of the 2017 budget
estimates) is what the 19 northern states budgeted for capital projects in
2016.
The idea of constituency projects
has been a subject of controversy for a very long time. Former President
Olusegun Obasanjo, being one of its staunchest critics, had at various times
spoken against it, describing it as “a veritable source of corruption.”
In July this year, the Senators
summoned the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David
Lawal for saying it would not be possible to fund the constituency projects of
National Assembly members as contained in the 2016 Budget because of the
paucity of funds.
Source:Daily Trust
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