Jacob Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniels, in this report, analyse the travails of members of the House of Representatives on the execution of constituency projects in their areas, concluding that the seventh session of the House is determined to avoid the usual trap.It is no longer news that the currentHouse of Representatives is largelydominated by new members. That notwithstanding, issues of constituency projects are coming up early in the life of the new lower chamber of the National Assembly. The reason for that is, however, not farfetched. It has been discovered that the issue of constituency projects is one of the factors that cost most members of the House of Representatives of the sixth session their seats. In losing their seats, the members were quick to point to the strategic blackmail that came their way, especially from the executive arm of government, as regards constituency projects. While they instituted the projects, the executive refused to either fund them or complete the projects, and that made them unpopular before the electorate.To most of the members ofthe House of Representatives, it was a part of the plot by the executive arm of government not to complete the constituency projects that were canvassed for, introduced by the lawmakers and packaged into the Federal Government budget. But another school of thought had it that while the Reps members could blame the executive for their failure at the polls, they failed to understand that they also deserved blame for their undoing, by not carrying out thorough oversight functions on such projects aimed at showcasing their contributions to their constituencies.Thus, with this at the back of their minds, the present House, under the leadership of Honourable Aminu Tambuwal and his deputy, Honourable Emeka Ihedioha, set out to do something different by being alert on issues of constituency projects. The House Committee on Constituency Outreach had already taken the bull by the horns by inviting government ministries, departments and agencies that have direct bearing on constituency projects. The first ministry to face the committee, chaired by Honourable Aisha Dahiru Ahmed, was Lands, Housing and Urban Development manned by Ms Amma Pepple.It was a war- like meeting when the committee met with the minister last week, as the lawmakers queried her over what they described as haphazard implementation of constituency projects built into the 2011 Budget. The lawmakers specifically faulted the up-dated progress report presented by the ministry on the solar-powered street lights project carried out in some constituencies with a damning verdict that the report was fraught with 'fraud'.At the meeting, the chairman of the committee, Hon Ahmed, told the ministry officials that the era of business as usual was over, adding that 'the House of Representatives of the seventh Assembly will not allow a situation whereby projects that were supposed to touch people's lives will be turned against the lawmakers on account of lapses from the supervising ministries.'According to her, 'the importance of this meeting is derived from the function of the committee because the committee is very central, very sensitive and dear to the heart of the House of Representatives of the seventh Assembly as it covers every member of the House, every constituency of the country as well as every Nigerian.''This is because whatever happens here has either a negative or positive effect on the leadership of the nation, beginning from councillors to the president, the local government, to our own constituents, that is, the electorate and the honourable member in the constituency who stands to win or lose from the activities of this committee.'The constituency projects are the only proof of governance and performance rate by the electorate. It has become mandatory to invite you to this meeting in response to our letter asking for detailed report on the implementation of the 2011 solar-powered street light constituency projects for the honourable members.'We need you to clarify some grey areas where our members have raised observations. It is hoped that the interaction would throw light on the grey areas for better service and conveyance of evidence of good governance,' she said.A member of the committee, Honourable Rasaq Bello-Osagie, who also spoke on the same subject-matter, said the solar power project had failed, saying, 'I have seen a site in Edo State where the evidence of the constituency project was just a sign post, with the site overgrown with weeds. It is evidently clear that it has failed because some contractors are just criminals. This report, as I see it, is just a show, whereas we are supposed to get services.'If there is a case of criminality in this report, we have to know because someone cannot just sit in the comfort of his office and manufacture figures, though I am not blaming the minister for this lapse,' he said.In her defence, the minister Ms Amma Pepple, said that even though neither herself, nor the Permanent Secretary was in office as at the time the projects were instituted, she could not have deliberately fed the lawmakers with lies. After the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development came the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) office, which is under the presidency. It was another shocker for the lawmakers, as they expressed concern over the misappropriation of over N54 billion earmarked for the execution of constituency projects by the office in the 2008 and 2009 appropriation acts.The committee also queried the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Dr Precious Gbenol, on how N25 billion out of the N54 billion, earmarked for the execution of the projects, was spent on consultancy and renting of a warehouse.The lawmakers, at the meeting, expressed their reservations after proper scrutiny of the documents presented by Dr Gbenol and kicked against the shoddy ways the various projects were being executed by the MDGs office across the country.The chairman of the committee, who restated that the meeting had become imperative as a result of the discouraging level of constituency projects across the country, noted that 'this has, to a large extent, put us in bad light before our constituents because, rather than benefit from the projects, reports from across the country showed that the electorate have not enjoy the services these projects were supposed to offer.'Deputy Chairman of the committee, Hon Pally Iriase, appealed to the MDGs office to liaise with the committee to proffer solution to the recurring problem of paucity of fund traced to the Federal Ministry of Finance had been affecting the work of the office.The only defence the president's aide was able to offer to the lawmakers was to apologise to them for the misleading figures in the report, pointing out that the N25 billion was not meant for consultancy fees and warehouse rental alone, but also included the actual cost of the projects.How far the committee is able to go with its scrutiny of the execution of constituency projects across the 360 federal constituencies will surely go a long way in defining the character of the Tambuwal-led seventh House of Representatives.
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