Reps promise to ensure proper implementation of constituency projects

This is contained in a statement issued on Thursday in Abuja by the Chairman, House Committee on Media and Publicity, Rep. Abdulrazak Namdas (APC-Adamawa).
Namdas said that members of the National Assembly were committed to identifying the peculiar needs of their constituents and ensure they were addressed.

The lawmaker stated that the doctrine of separation of power was not being compromised as a result of legislators’ involvement in constituency projects.

He, however, pointed out that all monies budgeted for constituency projects were domiciled in respective Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

According to him, members of the National Assembly are neither given money nor awarded contracts to execute any constituency project.

“All that each member or Senator does is to identify the peculiar needs of his or her people, select location and type of the project and strive to ensure that it is implemented.

“But for constituency projects, many rural communities in Nigeria will never have known about the existence of the Federal Government let alone benefitting from budgets.’’

Namdas blamed the poor implementation of constituency projects to the deliberate moves by successive governments to frustrate them.
“With the chronic failure of the executive to ensure even distribution of federal projects across the country, lawmakers were left with no option but to begin the agitation for equitable allocation and distribution of federal projects nationwide.

“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 per cent has ever been implemented in any given budget year.

“ 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.
“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,’’ he added