A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Segun Sowunmi, has called for the cancellation of constituency projects in the national budget, describing them as a means for budget padding, corruption, and duplication of executive functions.

Sowunmi, a former spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar’s Presidential Campaign Organisation for the 2019 general election, argued that the provision of constituency projects undermined legislative oversight and compromised the independence of the National Assembly.

A civic-tech organisation promoting budget transparency and accountability in Nigeria and other African countries, BudgIT, had accused the National Assembly of inserting 11,122 projects worth N6.93tn into the 2025 national budget.

The figure, according to an 18-page report released by the organisation, represents 12.5 per cent of the N54.99tn budget signed into law by President Bola Tinubu on February 28, 2025.

A detailed analysis of the BudgIT report revealed that 238 projects, each valued above N5bn and totalling N2.29tn, were inserted into the budget with little or no justification.

Further analysis showed that 3,573 projects worth N653.19bn were directly assigned to federal constituencies, while 1,972 projects valued at N444.04bn were allocated to senatorial districts.

Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, Sowunmi said the recurring controversy over inflated budgets and unexecuted projects linked to lawmakers’ constituency allocations had eroded public confidence in the budgeting process.

Sowunmi said, “The problem with the National Assembly is how we end up with a process that we call constituency projects.

“I feel we are coming to a point where we have to remove that from the privileges that the National Assembly members get, the reason being that the idea of constituency projects is what makes them incapable of doing oversight.

“If lawmakers have to be lobbying ministries and agencies for contracts and all of that, that already means that there is a collaborative potential and a lack of independence between the legislature and the executive.”

He said constituency projects, which were meant for the lawmakers to take to their respective bases, had been abused.

“Constituency projects only crept into our democracy because the government was trying to figure out how to give them (lawmakers) something to take back to their people, but I think that the process is now over-abused,” he said.

Sowunmi argued that constituency projects had become a tool for political patronage and personal enrichment rather than a vehicle for development.

The PDP chieftain urged the Federal Government to cancel constituency projects and redirect the funds to more impactful and sustainable development programmes.


https://punchng.com/pdp-chieftain-wants-constituency-projects-scrapped/