Buhari, NASS and constituency projects

RECENTLY, President Muhammadu Buhari came down hard on the National Assembly, saying that there was very little to show for the over  N1 trillion budgeted for the constituency projects of its members in the last 10 years.  Speaking at the National Summit on Diminishing Corruption in Public Sector organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in conjunction with the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation in Abuja recently, Buhari, represented on the occasion by the ICPC chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, said: “Corruption is the cause of many major problems in our country. It is a catalyst for poverty, insecurity, weak educational system, poor health facilities and services and many other ills of our society. It is on record that in the past 10 years, N1 trillion has been appropriated for constituency projects, yet the impact of such huge spending on the lives and welfare of ordinary Nigerians can hardly be seen.”

Expectedly, the lawmakers have not taken the accusation lying down. The House of Representatives condemned the ICPC for ‘misleading’ Buhari into criticising the National Assembly over the alleged wastage. It wondered how the ICPC arrived at N1 trn when the budgets for the constituency projects over the years were not properly funded, noting that the 2019 Appropriation Act was only about to be 40 per cent implemented. According to Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, the National Assembly could also scrutinise the commission’s finances to determine the amount budgeted for its operations and how it was spent. He said: “I think it is okay to use the National Assembly as a whipping boy, but let us debate on facts and not alternative facts. The facts could have been easily accessed through the Freedom of Information Act, which the ICPC could easily use as a tool of investigation, to know the releases as opposed to what was budgeted. Now, if the ICPC has made a report, I don’t think it will appreciate it if the House, in the exercise of its constitutional responsibility, did an oversight on the ICPC based on the money that was budgeted as opposed to what was released to them. So, I think we need to be very careful.”

Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Peter Akpatason, also stated that the amount budgeted for constituency projects was not the same as the amount released for their execution. Like their counterparts in the Green Chamber, members of the Senate also mounted a spirited defence against Buhari’s onslaught. A former Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, said that the amount of money released by the executive arm of government was responsible for the poor execution of the projects. While admitting that the president could be correct in his assertion, he stated that he was  proposing a law that would guide the allocation, disbursement and management of the funds meant for constituency projects. Meanwhile, the acting spokesman for the Senate, Godiya Akwashiki, said the statement credited to  Buhari had not been officially transmitted to the Senate, adding that if he had concerns about the National Assembly, there was a communication channel for him to reach its leadership.

Again, senators elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), speaking  at a news conference in Abuja, posited that Buhari’s statement was erroneous because constituency projects were usually funded and executed by the executive. Speaking on behalf of his colleagues, the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said Buhari should question his ministers and heads of federal agencies if he was not comfortable with the level of project implementation. Abaribe said: “If the president said he had not seen anything, he should ask his ministers and the agencies under him because they are the people who have been executing these projects.”

Truth be told, Buhari’s statement indicting the National Assembly did not capture the whole gamut of operations captured in the national malady that the execution of constituency projects has become in the country over the years. As we noted in past editorials, the National Assembly has the power of appropriation and there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the idea of constituency projects. The world over, members of the legislature run campaigns based on the projects they plan to attract to their constituencies. The problem with the Nigerian practice, however, is that the process is riddled with corruption. In most cases, what the members of the legislature, acting in cahoots with the leadership of the ministries, departments and agencies expected to implement the projects, do is to take the country for a ride. Thus, if for instance the lawmakers claim to have built hospitals, they must be able to show proof. The question, “where are the projects?”, is certainly not an academic exercise. Even if far less than the N1 trillion mentioned by Buhari has been spent on constituency projects over the years, it should be possible to show evidence of such projects and whether they are commensurate with the funds released. Pray, why are National Assembly members not open with their constituency projects? And just how can you perform oversight functions when you yourself are not transparent? In our view, had the lawmakers shown nobility in their handling of public funds, they would have been on such a solid moral pedestal as to render the claims of the executive completely redundant. As things stand, however,  they are yet to debunk Buhari’s claim. Rather, they have engaged in a tu quo que (what about you?) argument that has done little to advance their profile in the eyes of Nigerians. In specific terms, even if as Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila said, the National Assembly could also scrutinise the ICPC’s finances to determine the amount budgeted for its operations and how it was spent, that still would not help its case. The fact simply is that as Buhari averred, there is not much to show for the funds released.

But the president himself has a case to answer. He has spent four years out of the ten years that he captured in his critique, and so it is fair to ask where the constituency projects that his government released money for are. In case the president has not grasped the point, his statement constitutes self-indictment. What he is simply telling Nigerians is that for a quarter of the time covered by the period over which he has raised a query, his government has released money for projects which were never executed. After all, as the lawmakers pointed out copiously, it is the executive that releases money. So, where are the projects that Buhari’s officials released money for and executed? If funds were released but the projects attached to them were not executed, why did this not attract outrage from the president? Or are crimes pardonable only if perpetrated by the executive? Has Buhari queried his ministers over the projects that drew his angst, and if not, why?

In any case, pinning wastage of public resources exclusively on the legislative arm of government amounts to no more than the proverbial practice of leaving leprosy unattended to while treating ringworm. If anything, as we have shown again and again, all the three arms of government in the country are implicated in the wastage of public funds. For instance, the Buhari administration, while waxing rhetorical on anti-corruption, has borrowed loan after loan to fund the extravagance of government. It created four new ministries in the face of dwindling revenue and recruited new staff for them, spending money for which future generations will pay a bitter bill.

It is time the three arms of government decided to serve Nigerians conscientiously, diligently and faithfully. On their part, the generality of Nigerians, the academia, the media, and the civil society have a bounden duty to rise up and demand accountability from the three arms of government. Nigerians need to get value for the money daily expended on the government. On current evidence, that is not the case.