CONSTITUENCY PROJECTS IN A DEPRESSED ECONOMY

Josef Omorotionmwan urges the scaling  down of constituency projects    

we have since stopped looking at Constituency Project from the narrow viewpoint of strict constructionism. For too long, we remain glued to the concept of the separation of powers, which meant the legislators should confine themselves to policy formulation while policy implementation and execution must be left in the hands of the executive branch.

For much longer, we looked at the three tiers of government and found that in the main, most of the projects from National Assembly members fall within the purview of State and Local Governments. To that extent, those constituency projects would totally distort the performance of the federal budget.

The constituency projects are scattered everywhere in the federal government capital budgets. The legislators would use their overwhelming influence to ensure that no matter how slim the available revenue is, these available resources get released for their projects.

At the end of the financial year, you look at the budget performance and find that your capital budget has performed at the 30 percentage level, which is quite impressive.

But there is nothing to show for that improved capital performance – the federal highways are still death traps; education and health sectors are virtually comatose; power supply is still a mirage; and so on. It soon dawns on you that a good part of the releases done during the year went to the procurement of fridges, corn grinding machines and the provision of boreholes and solar lights scattered in all nooks and crannies of the country.

Essentially, the federal government has spent a good part of its revenue in doing what the States and localities should have been doing.

Nothing in the foregoing vitiates the fact that the constituency projects have become a fact of life. Things are changing.

For one thing, the local government system has almost gone into extinction since the time when the state governments constructively expropriated their finances and functions.

Secondly, not many legislators can live in the budget and resist the temptation of being affected by the budget. Relatively, the legislator lives the good life in Abuja. But he cannot always escape that moment when he must remember that his people back home have only pond water to drink and do their house chores during the rainy season, and in the dry season, they must trek long distances with big calabashes on their heads in search of water.

Again, in Abuja, the legislator’s immediate neighbour is the air-conditioner – at home, in his car, in the office, in the Chamber, and everywhere! He cannot always escape those high moments when he must remember that back home, the school children have no classrooms – they study under the shades of trees; and sometimes, under leaking roofs and falling walls. If this legislator now has the opportunity to insert any of these things in the budget that is passing through him, it will only take a moral idiot to begin to think if the functions are federal, state or local government. It is an opportunity that must not be allowed to slip by. For the legislator, it is like the snake – A man sees it; and the woman kills it. The important thing is that the snake does not escape!

This is one way of explaining the avalanche of water boreholes and solar lights in every part of the country from the constituency projects.

These fixed assets are recommended because of their non-discriminatory nature. They have no political colouration. The only problem, though, is that they hardly function beyond the day of commissioning. The question is not whether the constituency projects should be but how to regularize their stay and make them function well.

In the name of helping the President, they destroy the President. During the Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP/ Bauchi Central) saga where he stripped the Senators naked in the market place and it came to light that some ranking senators got as much as N500 Billion for their constituency project, many senators simply resorted to the same sing-song of “We are helping the President to implement his Renewed-Hope Agenda”.

And this is a President who is looking for every Kobo to provide critical infrastructure for the people. Even in these austere times, a budgetary provision of N100 Billion had been made for constituency projects. But this was not enough! At the National Assembly, a whopping sum of N1.2 Trillion must be added to the original provision; and in all this, we are dealing with borrowed money. Essentially, we are borrowing to finance fraud and frivolities.

Admittedly, the President and his team have not demonstrated sufficient seriousness that times are hard. We know that things are really hard for them. You cannot continue to ask people to tighten their belts while your own belt is still left loose at the number 10 hole. We have heard of instances where some State Governors have given up their pay because of the hard times – Governors Alex Otti and Chukwuma Soludo of Abia and Anambra States respectively, readily come to mind. Senator Gbenga Daniels (APC/Ogun East) is forfeiting his pensions for as long as he remains a senator. Yet, the President and the heavy baggage he drags with him are living in opulence marked by the most ostentatious consumption patterns.

All the same, we expect that in time of depression such as these, the legislators should also scale down their constituency projects commensurately.

Does the federal government know where its assets are? For the avoidance of doubt, all those constituency projects provided from the Federal Budget are Federal Government Assets. In normal life, only a foolish person would have assets and not care what happens to such assets.

Going forward, we must quickly revive the local government system throughout the Federation. Then, the federal government shall have an inventory of all the constituency projects. At the Presidency, there shall be a Task Force charged with the responsibility for caring for these assets. The task force shall have a Liaison  Officer who shall be domiciled at the headquarters of every local government where the constituency projects are situated. The liaison officers shall report on the state of the assets from time to time, including the need for replacements and renewals; and they shall also advise on when the assets are beyond repair and due for disposal as scraps.

 This new regime will make it criminal for any legislator to provide constituency projects and inscribe his name on such projects. Federal government assets shall not be named after any individual legislators.

Most importantly, this speaks to the items that can be accepted as constituency projects. They must be tangible assets that can be seen in public places; and such that are useful to all in society without political colouration.

We do not expect federal government officials to go to individual households to  enumerate the fridges, kitchen knives, pepper grinding machines, melon breakers and all such intangibles. The constituency project is a serious business that cannot be left at the level of vote buying!

Omorotionmwan writes from Canada