Bukola Saraki, Yakubu Dogara
In this report by Saturday Punch, voters across the country are complaining that they have yet to feel the impact of their lawmakers in the National Assembly
Voters are angry that their lives have not been impacted by the N300bn the Federal Government has released for constituency projects in the last four years and want the Federal Government to look into how the money has been spent.
The voters have alleged that their representatives in the National Assembly might have mismanaged the money or diverted same for personal interests.
Constituency projects are development projects that are recommended by the lawmakers for implementation in their constituencies.
FUTURE BRIGHT BLOG can authoritatively report that the Federal Government has allocated a total sum of N360bn to the National Assembly for constituency projects between 2011 and 2016.
A breakdown of the N360bn as captured in the budgets for the last five years showed that the sum of N60bn was allocated in 2012 while 2013 and 2014 had N100bn in each year.
In 2015, the sum of N40b was allocated while the figure rose to N60bn in the 2016 fiscal period. Though the N60bn allocated for constituency projects in this year’s budget has yet to be released to the lawmakers.
But voters claimed that there was nothing to prove that previously released money was spent on meaningful projects. Most of them told FUTURE BRIGHT BLOG that they had been poorly represented by their lawmakers.
While some of the lawmakers have distributed sewing machines, motorcycles and tricycles to a few members of the constituencies, most voters said in-laws and relatives of the lawmakers were the only people who benefited from the distribution of the items.
It is worthy to note that some members of the National Assembly have spent three terms in the legislative chambers. In spite of their long stay in the Assembly, members of their constituencies claimed that there was nothing to prove that they were adequately represented.
For example, an elder in a senatorial district in Benue State, who spoke with one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, said the third term senator representing the zone had yet to justify the purpose for which he was elected for the past nine years.
According to him, the senator has only distributed a few tricycles to the people as his constituency project since he was elected nine years ago.
A member of the House of Representatives from the Oju/Obi Federal Constituency in Benue State is also a third term lawmaker. A constituent, Mr. Ode Oga, said nothing could be traced to the lawmaker as a project the lawmaker had facilitated to the constituency.
According to him, the lawmaker’s nine years in the House of Representatives as far as the entire Igede people are concerned is a waste.
The same thing was also said about the lawmaker representing Sankara Federal Constituency in Benue State.
Some residents of Osun Central Senatorial District and those of the Ifelodun/Boripe/Odo Otin in the Osun State House of Assembly called for the interrogation of their representatives to know what they did with the constituency project money they had so far collected.
They said the lawmakers were simply representing themselves and just giving handouts to a few party leaders, but neglected the majority of the members of their constituencies.
Apart from the constituency projects voters in Bauchi State said they had yet to trace to their representatives in the National Assembly, the voters were also worried that the lawmakers’ voices were not being heard on national issues.
“They are too quiet as if they were not elected to serve the people; even without them at the National Assembly, the legislative house will not be affected in any way because their contribution is not felt,” a resident of Bauchi, Ahmed Kaigama, said, adding, “We don’t see or hear them sponsoring a bill or initiating one.”
Another Bauchi indigene, Alhaji Sani Sidi, said, “To be candid, I am not satisfied with the lawmakers representing my state in the National Assembly. For the past nine years, the lawmakers have misused the opportunities given to them.”
But the senator representing Bauchi South Senatorial District, Mallam Ali Wakili, told one of our correspondents that he achieved his primary duty by providing his constituents with quality representation.
In Ondo State, voters use the word “bogus” to describe every constituency project said to have been executed by lawmakers in the state. It was gathered that most of the projects stopped functioning a few days after their inauguration.
Some voters, who spoke with one of our correspondents on condition of anonymity, confirmed that a few of the lawmakers sunk boreholes and provided transformer for the people, but none of the projects functioned beyond the first two weeks after their inauguration.
But a lawmaker representing Akure South/ North Federal Constituency from Ondo State, Mr. Afe Olowokere, said members of the National Assembly did not collect cash for constituency projects, but only made proposals which were included in the budget.
He said, “In my own case, I made proposal and it is provided for in the budget. As of now, nothing has been done but it is already provided for in the 2016 budget to every member.”
A lawmaker representing Akoko South-East/South-West in the House of Representatives, Mr. Babatunde Kolawole, also shared Olowokere’s view.
The grouse of voters in Oyo State is slightly different from their colleagues in other states.
The voters alleged that their representatives “collect cash for constituency projects and return home to intimidate them with the money, instead of fulfilling their campaign promises.”
A community leader, Chief Abel Folorunso, spoke on the challenges his community has been facing for over three decades. According to him, politicians have always promised to fix the problems and disappear after their elections.
Folorunso said, “We face flooding in Ido Local Government Area.  There are other problems too. Politicians promised during campaigns and town hall meetings that they would fix the problems if we voted for them, but we have been expecting them since 1999 to fulfil the promise.”
A former women leader in Iseyin for one of the political parties, who simply identified herself as Mrs. Yusuff, said, “What lawmakers invest in their various constituencies is insignificant when compared with the huge amount of money they collect for constituency projects.”
However, the lawmaker representing Ibadan North-East and Ibadan South-East in the House of Representatives, Adedapo Lam-Adesina, said it was not enough to distribute materials for the people. He said it was high time politicians began to relate with their constituents.
Lam-Adesina said, “The issue goes beyond the fund from government meant for projects. I have spent my personal money to reach out to the people. Yes, we also distribute sewing machines, tricycles, motorcycles, pepper grinding machines, air dressing tools like dryers and others but we also go to schools to organise debates and come up with programmes that will enhance the quality of education and our society.”
The Kwara State Chairman, Congress for Nigerian Political Parties, Mr. Lawal Adebayo, said that there was no visibility of constituency projects in the three senatorial districts of the state.
Adebayo told one of our correspondents in Ilorin that there were many decayed infrastructure littering every part of the state.
According to him, most of the constituency projects said to have been executed by the lawmakers representing the state are only mass media propaganda.
He said, “We do not have anything on ground to show that any constituency project has been executed in Kwara State. In my area, we still don’t have functional hospital and the situation is getting worse.”
Alhaji Babatunde Aliyu from Omu-Aran, Kwara State, also said he could not recognise any constituency project in the area.
But the member representing Baruten/Kaiama Federal Constituency, Alhaji Mohammed Zakari, said lawmakers only identified projects needed by their different communities and constituencies, while the executive carried out the execution.
Also the senator representing Kwara South Senatorial District, Dr. Rafiu Ibrahim, said he had spent N25m on registration of many candidates for the West African School Certificate Examination, Senior Secondary School Examination and bursary for students at tertiary institutions.
Voters in Plateau Central Senatorial District flayed the senator representing the area for having nothing to show for his representation at the National Assembly.
One of the constituents, who simply identified himself as Maflul, said despite the fact that the senator was a two-time governor and one who should understand the problem of the people better, he had achieved nothing as a senator.
Maflul said, “Here we have a case of a senator whom we do not even see. The fertilizer blending plant he built as a governor did not receive any attention under him as a senator. He built the Plateau State University, Bokkos, but after 10 years, the university has yet to graduate any student and he is comfortably doing nothing to ensure that the university is developed.”
Many voters in Imo State described the money budgeted over the years for constituency projects as a waste. Three of them, who agreed that their names should be mentioned – Sampson Ogbuide, Jude Ogazi and John Okeke – urged that all the money allocated for constituency projects since 1999 should be probed.
They said there was nothing on ground to prove that a constituency project was ever executed in the state.
In Kano State, voters said the only “projects” they saw lawmakers from the state execute was the increase in the number of their wives.
A voter in Gwarzo Local Government Area of the state, Mallam Baba Yunusa, and Abdul Ibrahim from Bichi Local Government Area, lamented that their representatives hardly came to the communities since they had been inaugurated, unlike before their elections.
Some residents of Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area in Ogun State told one of our correspondents that the senator who represented Ogun West Senatorial District between 2011 and 2015 did not do anything to impact the district.
Listing the facilities crying for attention in the senatorial district to include bad roads, the residents said it was sad that for the four years that the senator represented Ogun West, no project was facilitated by the senator to Lafenwa in Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area.
Due to the alleged poor performance of the lawmakers, the Ekiti State Chairman, Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, Mr. Tunji Ogunlola, called for removal of constituency projects from the National Assembly.
Ogunlola said, “It should be the responsibility of the executive to execute projects and not that of lawmakers. They are to enact laws, so they have no business executing projects.”
A former senator who represented Ogun East Senatorial District between 2011 and 2015, Adegbenga Kaka, defended himself.
He said he never handle cash for constituency projects executed in his senatorial district while he was at the senate.
Kaka said some of the constituency projects were successful while others were inconclusive due to non-release of funds as claimed by contractors handling the projects.