Following their opposition to the inclusion of constituency
projects for federal lawmakers in the nation’s annual budget, the House of
Representatives has accused the duo of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and
Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, of double standard for
facilitating same in their service of Lagos State and criticising it at the
federal level.
The House in a reaction to an editorial published by the Nation
on June 26 entitled ‘Unholy Alliance’ frowned at the way both the vice
president and the minister presented their opposition to the proposal by
lawmakers to have constituency projects incorporated in the annual budget.
In the strongly worded statement signed by the House spokesman,
Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, on Thursday, the green chamber said: “For the benefit
of those who are either ignorant or doubtful, the philosophy of constituency
projects is well embedded and encapsulated in the 1999 constitution in the
Federal Character Principle. More specifically, the constitution in section
14(3) states:
‘The composition of the government of the federation or any of
its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such manner
as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national
unity, and also to command national loyalty thereby ensuring that there shall
be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other
sectional groups in that government or in any of its agencies.’
“This also extends to allocation and implementation of budget
and projects which is well covered by the provisions of section 16 (1): ‘The
state shall…harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity
and an efficient, dynamic and self-reliant economy and control the national
economy in such manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness
of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality…..”, the House
said.
It also noted that the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, had at the same
one-day national summit on the framework for implementing and sustaining
constituency projects where both the vice president and the minister made
presentations kicking against the proposal cited Lagos State as a flagship
entity which has domesticated the concept via legislation with the active
participation of the duo either as the state’s commissioner for justice and
attorney general and governor, respectively.
“As Dogara noted, Lagos State stands out as the first state to
enact legislation legitimising constituency project just one year into the
fourth republic in 2000. In fact, other states soon emulated Lagos and to some
extent even the federal legislature.
“HE Babatunde Fashola implemented constituency projects for
members of the Lagos State House of Assembly for the eight years he was the
governor. The vice president was AG of Lagos State also and at no point in time
did any of them contend that the Lagos law was unconstitutional. As Senior
Advocates why didn’t any of them challenge the Lagos law in court? Are they
saying constituency project is only good and constitutional for Lagos State
only? What else might have informed their sudden change of perception? Nigerians
from other regions must see through this facade.
“We are now strongly tempted to suggest that perhaps all the
minister wants is the free hand to single-handedly allocate lion share of
capital votes in the Ministry of Works, Power and Housing to Lagos-Ibadan axis
alone to the detriment of other parts of the country as seen in the 2016 budget
proposal”, the House alleges.
Buttressing its point further, the House which recently
deliberated and passed the 2016 budget accused Fashola of promoting a sectional
agenda by slanting certain important allocations toward his home region at the
expense of other states of the federation.
“The main ministry’s capital budget as proposed by Fashola’s
ministry was N334.3 billion out of which he allocated N89 billion to his home
region while the North East, the most devastated and neglected region got a
paltry N10 billion. How can anyone justify this and then turn around to oppose
a token allocation of say N30 million for rural projects in the federal constituencies
including the ones in the geopolitical zone that was allocated N89 billion of
the ministry’s capital budget? Who is fooling who? A minister takes N89 billion
to his region and turns around to attack N100 million meant for constituencies
nationwide. Sadly, this is what the Nation is defending in its editorial which
is a perfect example of clannish conspiracy.
“The argument has always been that the job of lawmakers is to
make laws and no more, even then it is usually conveniently disregarded, the fact
that annual budget or appropriation is one of the most important laws by the
legislature. We should be reminded that making laws is just one function while
there are other more critical aspects of the work of MPs. The job of a lawmaker
also includes representation which entails protection of the interests of their
constituents by ensuring that they get fair treatment from government including
a fair share of the national budget.
“But for constituency projects, many rural communities in
Nigeria would never have known about the existence of the Federal Government
let alone benefitting from budgets. Thanks to the mechanism of the projects
which ensures that every year projects such as solar powered bores holes, hand
pumps, school infrastructure, dispensaries, skills acquisition centres, poverty
alleviation, etc are implemented, however, poorly the implementation. In fact,
it is on record that over the years, the executive deliberately frustrates the
implementation of constituency projects to the point that not up to 40 percent
has ever been implemented in any given budget year.
Already, unfortunately, the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir David Lawal, has stated
that the government may not be able to implement constituency projects in the
2016 budget. May be he doesn’t know that the Appropriation Act is a law that
must be implemented unless of course if it is amended which can only be done if
the government fails to meet its revenue targets.
“Needless to say that it is the monumental failure of the
executive of successive governments to implement budgets and ensure national
spread of projects through even and equitable allocation of capital votes that
compelled lawmakers to insist that a meagre or paltry sum be allocated for
projects in constituencies nationwide. Indeed it is strange for a top
functionary of an APC government to oppose a policy aimed at fairness and
transparency such as constituency projects. For the avoidance of doubt, skewed
development is corruption and it’s propagation in an APC government will be
puzzling paradox.
“The legislature is never averse to constructive criticism but
criticism borne out of mischief is sheer hypocrisy and a deliberate attempt at
giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. The Nation‘s editorial on the
subject deliberately avoided comparative analysis and the fact that HE, Fashola
himself implemented constituency projects as governor of Lagos State for 8
years.
The editorial was at best an intellectual fraud. This certainly should
not be the preoccupation of persons who are not only well informed but enjoy
the privilege of laying hands on any information they lawfully desire”, the
statement contended.
Source: TodayNG
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