Members of the National Assembly are seeking legal backing to get N2.1 trillion from the 2020 budget to execute constituency projects.
The senate passed for second reading, the bill seeking to allocate a minimum of 20 per cent of Nigerian annual budget for constituency projects.
When passed into law, the National Assembly members will comfortably get N2.1 trillion out of the N10.594 trillion 2020 budget, for their zonal intervention projects.
The bill was sponsored by Senator Stella Adaeze Oduah (PDP, Anambra North) titled: “Constituency projects (budgetary provisions) Bill, 2019”.
Oduah, in her lead debate, said the intention of the bill was to ensure that good governance is delivered to the people, most of whom are seventy percent rural dwellers.
According to her, Constituency Project is one of the ways of attracting federal presence to Nigerians from across the states.
“If not for these projects, majority of federal constituencies would not have a single federal project due to lopsided nature of project allocation in the budget,” the lawmaker said.
She noted that constituency project is not only peculiar to Nigeria alone, stressing that countries like Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and India had institutionalized Constituency Development Fund.
“Instead of vilifying the National Assembly on constituency project, people should advocate for an institutional framework for the implementation of the constituency project as it is the case in Kenya.
“This bill, therefore, is an attempt at providing both institutional and legislative framework for the operation of constituency projects in Nigeria, thereby making it part of our national budget,” she said.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, after the bill scaled second reading, referred same to the Committee on Finance for further legislative work.
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