FG, Dogara disagree over constituency projects

The Federal Government and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yakubu Dogara, on Monday disagreed over the relevance of the constituency projects built into the nation’s budget yearly for senators and Reps.

State Governments also budget for the constituency projects of members of state Houses of Assembly across the Federation.

Top officials of the Federal Government, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Babachir Lawal, and the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), criticised the concept of constituency projects.

They spoke at at summit organised by the National Institute for Legislative Studies for lawmakers in Abuja, where Dogara defended the relevance of such projects.

Babachir, for instance, dismissed the projects, saying that over the years, they had been used as conduits to siphon public funds.

He stated that while the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari believed that projects should be provided for the people, the government would not allow the wasting of public funds as had been the practice in the past.

The SGF added, “Presently, Buhari is determined to correct these. This government can no longer afford to be complacent in the way it deploys resources.

“All projects will now be properly integrated for functionality, sustainability to ensure that constituencies derive the projects with benefits.”

On his part, Fashola observed that lawmakers were known to recommend “crowded” projects mostly in primary healthcare and projects that constitutionally were the responsibility of local governments.

According to him, the projects often end up as duplication of efforts when lawmakers and local governments are providing the same projects for communities.

He also pointed out that there should be a framework to differentiate government-funded projects from the private constituency projects of legislators.

The minister added, “I say this because we must avoid the risk of crowded projects where legislators at the national level are made strictly to implement constituency projects that involve primary healthcare centres, which are for the local government areas.

“We should develop a legal framework for the operations of constituency projects. To the extent therefore that constituency projects are not necessarily provided for in our constitution. They have grown by convention from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

“So, it is important to design a framework that will ensure that these projects are really constituency projects and not legislators’ projects.

But, Dogara strongly defended the projects. He stated that there was a constitutional backing for the projects, besides such projects being popular in many democratic jurisdictions globally.

The Speaker said one surest way of bringing government closer to the people and to give all communities a sense of belonging was through constituency projects.

Dogara explained further, “This conference, which is organised by the National Assembly and facilitated by the NILS, is designed to assist legislators find practical ways of improving the performance of their representative role.”