A lawmaker’s lamentation about constituency projects

IF the member of the House of Representatives representing the Bwari/AMAC Federal Constituency of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Obika Chinedu, were to have his way, the burden of constituency projects, which have generated so much controversy in the polity, would be completely taken off lawmakers. Speaking in an interview, Honourable Chinedu queried lawmakers’ alleged abandonment of their primary legislative duties in pursuit of constituency projects. According to the Labour Party lawmaker, constituency projects constitute the greatest harm done to Nigeria’s legislative arm of government. To him, the only way Nigerians can “recover the country” is by taking off the constituency projects off legislators. His words: “Community projects are not our business; we should only go out to supervise those whose job it is. Legislators have been turned into executives. Everywhere we go, we keep receiving demands from people about one project or the other. People are no longer interested in lawmaking or things that should be put into the Constitution to better the lives of the people. Everybody is dragging how he can attract a road here or light there. The road is meant for everybody to have. No constituency is more than the other. Some of our colleagues who found themselves in leadership positions have more reach to do things.

“You will see a legislator that is dedicated, but because he doesn’t have that reach, he won’t be able to attract projects to his constituency, probably because he is from the opposition. People will look at him and say, ‘You have failed.’ No, it is not true. This has harmed us. That is why people who have no business with the National Assembly are there. If you go there and you are able to get a good committee that attracts a project, that is all. Lawmakers are no longer talking about legislation; we can no longer debate issues. Everybody is running to put satellites and boreholes, and the country is wasting away.” According to the lawmaker, people now hold legislators responsible for what members of the executive should do, telling them what they should be telling the executive.

Honourable Chinedu’s concerns are understandable. For years, Nigerians have spoken on the controversy surrounding constituency projects. For one thing, the opacity surrounding the allocation, distribution and execution of the projects has led to many query the essence of having them. The projects have to do with the alleged “padding” of the budget every cycle: they are whimsically added to the fiscal document presented by the executive, leading to a spike in the sums allocated to various sectors. For another, legislators have been consistently accused of colluding with ministers and the heads of agencies and departments of government in executing such projects through contractors linked to the lawmakers, and there has been no cogent explanation offered to douse the misgivings of naysayers. A close examination of the Nigerian situation would indeed show that the federal lawmakers are preoccupied with the issue of constituency projects, in large part because they are a major factor, possibly the most important factor, in the assessment of their performance by constituents. The LP lawmaker complaining about the situation is, therefore, not being facetious. Indeed, the current practice is for those in the ruling party to get the lion share of projects, leaving those in the opposition in political disadvantage. The corollary, therefore, is for the lawmakers with a rich portfolio of constituency projects to be rated very highly, over and above their colleagues with a poor portfolio, regardless of the astuteness of the latter as lawmakers.

In our view, constituency projects are not necessarily bad; it is the means or process of their execution that deserves scrutiny. Across the country, people have pressing needs and they will try and channel them through their representatives in government. In doing this, they may not care whether they are lawmakers or members of the executive. All that they are concerned with is their infrastructure needs and since they do not necessarily make a fine distinction between lawmakers and ministers at the federal level, and commissioners and honourables at the state level in this regard, seeing them all simply as “government,” the outcry over constituency projects will continue. That is not hard to understand;  the developmental needs across the country are high, as governments over the years have largely not been fit for purpose.

Constituency projects should be proposals submitted to the executive. All such projects should be handled by the relevant ministries; all that the lawmakers need to do is to attract projects to their constituencies by lobbying the executive. It is an aberration for them directly execute such projects, or to nominate contractors to handle them. In any case, it is not hard to see why constituency projects have become a big racket. If the executive arm of government had been alive to its responsibilities, there would have been no hoopla about constituency projects. But it continues to fail in its responsibilities, leaving yawning developmental gaps. The present situation needs to change. Lawmakers should not be turned into contractors or members of the executive; their primary role is to make laws for good governance, and to perform oversight functions.