Constituency projects. PHOTO: PushNews

North corners N51.9bn while South takes N44.2bn

N/W: N17.97bn, N/C: 17.90bn, N/E: N16.06bn, S/S: N15.14bn, S/E: N14.85bn, S/W: N14.28bn

Kano gets highest vote of N5.2bn, followed by Niger with N4.4bn and Edo with N4bn

… Akwa Ibom, Osun get N1.8bn each just as Oyo, Ogun get least allocation of N1.7bn each

Soni Daniel, Northern Region Editor

A week after President Muhammadu Buhari taunted Nigeria’s legislators for wasting over a trillion Naira in two decades without anything to show for it under the guise of implementing Constituency Projects, the details of how the N100 billion earmarked for the scheme in this year’s budget has been made public.

The ICPC revealed on Thursday in Abuja that the Ministry of Agriculture and agencies under the Presidency take the lion share of Zonal Intervention Projects popularly known as Constituency Projects in the 2019 budget.

The breakdown of the allocations given by the Chairman of the ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, at the launch of a scheme to take constituency projects to the grassroots and make them to key into the scheme, indicated that the Northern part of the country got N51.9 b while the South was allocated N44.2 billion.

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The document, which was circulated to participants at the event, tagged “Roundtable for Media Executives on Community ownership of Constituency Projects” showed that in terms of regional breakdown the North West got the highest allocation with N17.97 billion followed by the North Central with N17.90 and North East with N16.06 billion.

The project is to be jointed executed by the National Orientation Agency, NOA, ActionAid and the ICPC in order to make constituency projects more relevant to the citizens of Nigeria and add value to their lives as against the current practice where the money meant for the scheme is mismanaged.

On the other hand, the South-South got N15.14 billion followed by South East which was allocated N14.85 while the South West was given N14.28 billion out of the N100 billion vote for constituency projects.

On a state basis, Kano got the highest number of projects worth N5.2 billion followed by Niger State with N4.4 billion and Edo State with N4 billion.

Enugu State came fourth with projects worth N3.7 billion while Anambra and Bauchi states following with projects valued at N3.7 billion and N3.5 billion respectively.

Chairman of ICPC, Prof Bolaji Owasanoye, explained that with the involvement of communities, the management and implementation of constituency projects would not be the same again, as the people are the ones to choose projects most relevant to their needs and to take ownership of such after the provision by the government.

“If we don’t do something urgent to change the way constituency projects are handled in this country, there would still be challenges while huge government funds continue to be used with little or nothing to show,” the chairman warned.

“Our goal is not to stop constituency projects but to make them more effective and sustainable with value for public funds put into the scheme by the government,” Owasanoye said.

The Director-General of the NOA, Dr Garba Abari, said his agency was pleased to work with the ICPC and ActionAid to drive the new initiative aimed at making constituency projects to deliver more benefits to Nigerians and make the impact of the government felt at the grassroots.

Abari said: “The Federal Government of Nigeria has put in a lot of money into constituency projects over the years and there is nothing to show of it. There is, therefore, a compelling need to change the strategy of implementing and managing the scheme in order to deliver maximum benefits to Nigerians and get value for money.”

Vanguard