NASS N60B CONSTITUENCY PROJECT: Strictly Economic Loot Than Boost!
By L.Chinedu Arizona-Ogwu
The Nigeria Law-making Institution has become a legislative means for the governmental corruption. The Houses term of reference are not clear and also has no specific policy. They pretend that there is democracy in Nigeria and a law-making/regulating body. The role of the National Assembly is to approve laws in favour of the government, but most of our Law-Makers are absent from sessions. Only the legislative bloc of the ruling party attends to vote. I wonder about the parliament actions toward the economic crises we face presently. What did the upper and Lower Houses offer to the poor families?
That the National Assembly role has remained restricted under the continuous influence of this government traced from Obasanjo's era is never an understatement. According to the issue on the ground, the later enjoys monitoring guaranteed by the constitution. It can exercise its monitoring over the actions of the executive power. The internal factors are represented by the law-makers' interests overcoming their monitoring roles. We mostly observe that members of the legislation go to two different directions. The first one is that they feel the importance of parliament monitoring over the executive power. The second thing is their willingness to interchange with the government or at least not to end relationship with it whatever the consequences are.
This despotic issue signifies that democracy has been locked up along with Nigeria's most famous dissident. The state is under despot law and its highest profile looters are hidden from the citizen's eye. The firm grip of the ex-military rulers and their ex-service chief has ensured the stamping out in public of the country's quest for efficacy of this democracy. The reluctance of Nigerian people to voice their thoughts is palpable. The very presence of a journalist is intimidating to people here. Nigerians at home-front have grown up in a country which now for many decades had been one in which everyone knew that free speech was not allowed, which you could be directly and possibly punished for engaging in free speech. For a nation that is the seat of retired military-remote government, Nigeria appears a calm and peaceful country. It’s totally untrue to say that investment only benefits the incumbent politicians. They are not the people who need to worry about food on the table or rent for the next month. It’s the underprivileged Nigerian people who really need jobs or who have to worry about paying the rent, or food .However, whether sanctions remain or not, Nigeria is still paying a heavy price for not allowing democracy to grow. And we, the ordinary citizens must still hope that somewhere down the line, the retired military will realize its own limitations.
Nigerians should hold the National Assembly accountable for this economic deterioration. This arm of government was supposed to provide an atmosphere of opening for the parliament monitoring in the community, especially when the Nigerian experience emerged after the unification. However, the parliament role remained restricted under the continuous influence of this government.
Recently, the Federal Government and the National Assembly including the Presidency, traded blames over the failure of the 2008 Budget. While the National Assembly said the blame squarely rests on President Umaru Yar'Adua and his ministers for apparent lack of commitment and dedication, the presidency said it was the delay in passing the budget that accounted for its low implementation.” We are not satisfied with the performance of the 2008 budget and 30 or 35 percent performance is very appalling and we wont take it again" declared senator Ayogu Eze, the law-makers' spokesman. He said that senate had perfected strategies to ensure that budget was passed before the end of each fiscal year so that it would start running from the beginning of every January. But Mr. President presented a budget of N2.87trillion for the 2009 fiscal year to the National Assembly for approval. Despite their advice for Mr. President to keep faith to the proposals, the Upper House deviated from designing strategic bills to address the basic needs of the Nigerian people to asking for selfish but fictitious constituency project money. Before signing the 2009 budget into law, they persuade the presidency to include the sum of N60 billion in the 2009 budget and named "constituency project.
And it was split on the basis of N10 billion per geo-political zone. It was equally split among the states. South-East was the only zone that could get N2 billion per state because it is the only zone that has five states. In Enugu, for instance, both senators and members of House of Representatives decided to put it in the Enugu Airport expansion project. That is where they alleged the money was put. Then what was the aim of the controversial Aviation Intervention Fund, The NEMA and the Nigeria Airport Authority? That of South- West was split among the National Assembly members and each of them got about N270 million but one of the members took N250 million out of his own money and put it in Osun State which is what is reflected there. And then some people who were in certain committees thought that an appropriation had flown through the roof into their committees and they had good reasons to express such concerns. But then the clarification is there.
These decaying Houses should show Nigerians where these monies are going to. Most of them have already wired theirs abroad into foreign personal account, look for dilapidated buildings like the defunct NRC and SDP buildings found inside bushes to renovate with chicken change, when after all the contractors are not paid at the end of such work, but promised heaven and earth. Here one of them says "It does not matter where you put it now. The prerogative of the project where you put it belongs to the member of the National Assembly. That one, nobody restricts you where you put your money. The prerogative of where you put your money now belongs to you" .But the fund aims to control imbalances in regional development brought about by partisan politics. It targets all constituency-level development projects, particularly those aiming to combat poverty at the grassroots. The fund comprises an annual budgetary allocation equivalent to 2.5% of the government's ordinary revenue. A motion seeking to increase this allocation to 7.5% of government’s revenue was recently passed in parliament. 75% of the fund is allocated equally amongst all Nigeria's constituencies. The remaining 25% is allocated as per constituency poverty levels. A maximum 10% of each constituency’s annual allocation may be used for an education bursary scheme. The Fund ought to be managed through 4 committees 2 of which are at the national level and 2 at the grassroots level. Why such diversion?
When the idea of constituency projects of legislators first surfaced, it was unfortunately, from the 1999 - 2003 National Assembly, of which I was a member as a senator. But then, the idea was not to pay money into the personal accounts of legislators for such projects. Rather, the idea was to ensure a minimum presence of government in every constituency by having some grass-roots projects sited in each one, during the budgeting process. It was duly recognized that legislators have no constitutional powers to award contracts or execute projects. Legislators were merely required to identify projects which they wished to be sited in their constituencies for inclusion in the budget, with a financial ceiling for the budgetary provisions for such projects in each constituency. The award of contracts for, and the supervision and payments for such contracts were left completely in the hands of the appropriate executive agencies of government. For example as a senator, my constituency borehole projects were put under the projects of Ogun-Oshun River Basin Development Authority, and the contracts for them were awarded and paid for by that agency.
Similarly, projects on roads were placed under the Ministry of Works, and those on electricity under the Ministry of Power. This was the way constituency projects for all the National Assembly legislators were handled. Since then, the idea of constituency projects has come under severe abuse, especially at state level. During the travails of Mr. Abiodun Aluko as the deputy to former Governor Fayose of Ekiti State sometimes in 2005, evidence was supplied by Mr. Aluko to show that his boss, ex-Governor Fayose, paid N2m each to the personal accounts of legislators who were willing to cooperate with the governor’s intention to impeach him. The legislators who received this money attempted to justify it by claiming it represented part payments to them for their constituency projects, even though Aluko also showed that it was only legislators who were willing to dance to the governor’s tune that received the money. Without any prejudice to whether the payments were indeed meant for constituency projects or not, the episode demonstrates the kind of abuse to which payments for constituency projects can be put, when paid directly to the personal accounts of legislators.
It can easily become a channel for bribing legislators to carry out various political agenda of the governor, especially agenda of a corrupt and indecent nature. Recently, the Osun State government ordered the payment of N5m each into the private accounts of its state legislators, as constituency projects allowances. It is clear that both the governor who approved the payments, and the legislators who received them, know that their acts are manifestations of illegality and corruption and this is what the AC members have been harping on, although not because they are any less prone to such corrupt inducement. When the relationship between the law-makers and the government goes tense due to the government oversteps working outside the law, some members of the National Assembly demand to interrogate this government or even one of its members. This demand faces objection made by some of the legislators under the excuse of the illegality of such interrogation.
Lack of competence of most of the Law-Makers negatively affects the development of the legislative action. Many of them are considered Silence Legislators. Around 68 percent of Law-makers, who participated to answer study questionnaire, shared the same point of the study, indicating the incompetence of the Law-Makers is one of the reasons behind the weakness of parliamentary monitoring. This incompetence as well as ignorance of the constitution and bylaw led to false practices in monitoring the government. Our national Assembly lacks legislative and parliamentary culture. Some members use means of monitoring that lead to no discussion or voting. As an example of this monitoring weakness, the parliament attempted to pass the list of the nominees of the higher authority of fighting corruption, but some of the parliamentarians did not accept this measure. Consequently, the leaders of the House were compelled to give the list back to the authority.
It also showed that partisan affiliation of some Law-Makers is one of the main obstacles of Legislators monitoring over the executive power. Sixty five percent of them parliament informants shared the same point. It also reached to say that the National Assembly is in need of reshuffling and new competent members so that they can perform their duties effectively. To do so, the election law as well as the term of the parliament seats must be revised.
The Nigeria Law-makers' failure gets more abject with every passing hour – there is no sense that Law-makers are in there battling to get answers to the questions that matter. Those waving their order papers as though this was all a marvelous joke seems to think that this is a crisis happening in another world which will not impact on the real economy. When this initial excitement is over they will discover that their constituents - not featherbedded on public sector salaries like Legislators, with ten weeks of holiday (and that’s just the summer) - are angry and getting more angry by the day. At some point, surely, it will be thought necessary to hold the executive to account and start asking proper questions.
Here are five questions, just for starters. There will be many more to follow in the next few years. The Law-makers should have been asking; how much extra does this government think it will have to borrow this year? Combine the calculation in that answer with the fall in tax revenues and existing out of control this government borrowing - and how much do ministers think they will have to put up taxes this year and next? Surely this government has been sensible enough to guarantee that not a single banker in institutions being rescued will get a bonus this year or next?
Most of our Law-Makers were elected in a well-known way. The parliament failure was expected in advance. The majority of the parliament members are tribal "sheiks". Their behaviour, clothes and culture reflect this mentality. Cars are given to them along with bodyguards. Cows are slaughtered in front of the National Assembly. Unfortunately, this country and her law-makers are handled this way. There is no wonder about the failure and weak performance of these members of the "rape" and "sin-ate". It gives this government the impetus to administer the Nigerian state of affair the way it wants. Most of the bills they pass are against the citizens. The National Assembly is unable to pass the law of fighting electoral malpractices and loots. These laws are not in favour of the citizens. The tribal structure of the parliament is the key reason behind its weakness. Recently the call to bring Obasanjo to book hit a rock at the National Assembly, where his tribe pulls the string to fence those that moved that motion.
Nigerians should hold the National Assembly accountable for the deteriorated circumstances of the citizens, considering it an elected establishment representing the nation in legislation and monitoring. Both Houses are instruments in hand of the authority to achieve its goals. The Law-Makers' role is very weak. There are local and international reports indicating the availability of infringements and looting the public resources such as oil and gas, taxes as well as freedom violations. The House is deteriorated because most of the Law-Makers did not reach it competently using state's bodies and techniques of intimidation. Such people can not adopt the citizens' issues and concerns. The National Assembly is a dependent and ineffective institution. It is a tool to enhance the ruling regime. The House has a theoretical power. It has nothing to do practically.
L.Chinedu Arizona-Ogwu
Founder; Nigeria4betterrule
Writes from Oyigbo near Port Harcourt
08034885337
