{"id":121943,"date":"2025-09-05T05:03:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:03:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=121943"},"modified":"2025-09-05T05:03:34","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T04:03:34","slug":"obasanjo-chides-lawmakers-over-constituency-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/obasanjo-chides-lawmakers-over-constituency-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Obasanjo Chides Lawmakers Over Constituency Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Lizzy Chirkpi<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has launched an attack on federal lawmakers accusing them of using constituency projects and budget manipulation as vehicles for self-enrichment and extortion.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">In his newly released book, &#8216;Nigeria Past and Future: Contemplations on Nigeria\u2019s History and Vision for Tomorrow,&#8217; Obasanjo described the controversial projects as \u201cdaylight unarmed robbery,\u201d insisting that those behind the practice \u201cmust be treated as criminals.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">The former leader, who ruled Nigeria as both a military head of state and a democratically elected president, alleged that legislators routinely distort budgets, fix their own salaries and allowances \u201cagainst the Constitution,\u201d and water down anti-corruption laws to protect their interests.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cLawmakers of the Fourth Republic are much worse than their predecessors,\u201d Obasanjo wrote. \u201cThey run oversight committees as extortion rackets.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He cited how the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) bill was deliberately delayed for 18 months because legislators feared its provisions would expose them after leaving office. \u201cSome of them said that if they passed the bill as I had sent it, most of them would go to jail,\u201d he recalled, adding that the law was eventually passed \u201cin a diluted form.\u201d<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Obasanjo also blamed lawmakers for weakening the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Act, alleging that some oil-producing states bribed them to avoid contributing to the Commission\u2019s funding, leaving the burden on the federal government and oil companies.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Beyond legislative sabotage, he accused the National Assembly of turning budgets into cash machines. \u201cIn their hunger for illegitimate money, the lawmakers devised what they called constituency projects\u2026 invariably, once such misconduct is allowed, the budget goes into deficit,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">He further alleged that oversight visits were often little more than \u201ccash collection tours.\u201d \u201cThey visit the projects of ministries and parastatals purely to collect money from them. It is shockingly bad,\u201d he declared.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">According to Obasanjo, Nigeria\u2019s lawmakers are \u201camong the highest paid in the developing world, and in some cases earning more than colleagues in advanced democracies,\u201d a reality he says has undermined governance and development.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWhen I was president, I refused to release funds I found unacceptable. On occasions, I was threatened with impeachment, which did not move me,\u201d he added.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Obasanjo\u2019s explosive claims have reignited debate over whether constituency projects now firmly embedded in Nigeria\u2019s annual budgets serve genuine development needs or remain, as he insists, a conduit for corruption and waste.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify;\">Interestingly, this is the one first time the former President will be referring to the National Assembly lawmakers will accuse them of corruption.<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Lizzy Chirkpi Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has launched an attack on federal lawmakers accusing them of using constituency projects and budget manipulation as vehicles for self-enrichment and extortion. In&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Obasanjo Chides Lawmakers Over Constituency Projects - Pointblank News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/obasanjo-chides-lawmakers-over-constituency-projects\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Obasanjo Chides Lawmakers Over Constituency Projects - Pointblank News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Lizzy Chirkpi Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has launched an attack on federal lawmakers accusing them of using constituency projects and budget manipulation as vehicles for self-enrichment and extortion. 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