The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has said that the proposed Constituencies Development Catalyst Fund (CDCF) Bill is against the 1999 Constitution as amended and a misplaced priority.
The main purpose of the Bill sponsored by Senator Buhari Abdulfatai is to execute projects that would promote government presence in each of the state constituencies.
But the CDD Director Idayat Hassan said yesterday in a statement that this objective had been pursued by previous administration in Nigeria and elsewhere without much success.
“CDD is however concerned that the bill if passed into law, will whittle down decentralization and local government administration in Nigeria,” Hassan said.
“This Bill challenges the autonomy of local government, an important tier of government; for instance, by the creation of the Constituencies Development Catalyst Committee, a dependent role is created for the local government executives and opens a risk for patronage and clientele corruption with their legislative counterparts.”
She said that since the return to democracy in 1999, constituency projects and its implementation have been generating lots of backlash from the citizenry and stakeholders.
According to her, part of the criticism has generally been its lack of accountability, the practice of legislatures nominating projects and contractors and failure of these ‘constituency projects’ to yield many dividends for constituents.
It is not news that in many states of the Federation, necessary facilities which are taken for granted in some urban centers such as accessible roads, clean water, schools, dignified housing and toilets as well as functional health centers remains a challenge in Nigeria.
Hassan said that while it is commendable to have NGOs on the proposed committee, the selection criteria are faulty.
She said that other opaque provisions in the Bill are an open ended reporting process, gap in audit process and lack of clear processes for dissolution or expulsion of committee members upon confirmation of fraud.
“CDD is concerned that the Bill challenges the autonomy of the local government administration and does not support the approach of this Bill to circumvent the strictly oversight role of the legislature stipulated in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” she said.
