Federal lawmakers should not pad the
budget irrespective of the good it would serve their constituencies. It
is wrong because padding adds financial burden to the budget and this
could negate the objectives the executive arm intends to achieve with
the budget. Moreover, the money, most times, goes into the pockets of
the lawmakers.
I am of the opinion that all capital
projects should be executed by the executive arm while our lawmakers’
responsibility should stop at lawmaking and oversight. When that is
done, there would no excuse by the legislators to tamper with the budget
prepared by the executive.
Ours is a country filled with surprises.
In what way has the millions of poor Nigerians benefitted from the
so-called constituency projects? Such fraudulent practices should come
to an end.
Padding is an aspect of corruption. It
is not right to pad a budget that has been submitted to the National
Assembly by the President. In fact, there should be no mercy for those
involved in padding. It does not matter who is involved. Instead of
executing projects, the National Assembly should serve as an advisory
body to the President on projects that should be executed in their
constituencies.
Ideally, the legislature has no business
handling capital projects, which should be the exclusive preserve of
the executive arm. If there are projects to be executed in their
constituencies, the lawmakers should bring such to the attention of the
relevant ministries. The ongoing budget padding saga lends credence to
my assertion that legislators should be stopped from executing
constituency projects.
I am sure 90 per cent of Nigerians would
kick against padding. Lawmakers who smuggle constituency projects into
the budget have hidden agendas. Any right-thinking person would say it
is not proper to pad budget. This practice has been going on for decades
until God sent President Muhammadu Buhari to stop it. That is why many
people are fighting him in order to ensure that he does not succeed.
If not for his honesty, Buhari would
have signed the budget without delay. And there was no way Nigerians
would have known what transpired.
I think we need constituency projects.
The advantage of such projects is that they are conceived by lawmakers
who know their constituencies and what the people need. They would help
us to achieve even development across different parts of the country.
Instead of scrapping the idea, there
should be a strict monitoring of the budget and its implementation. The
idea of smuggling constituency projects into the budget is what I
disagree with.
In the first place, what are we doing
with a bicameral legislature? That others do it is not enough for us to
do the same. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have
caused us much sorrow. I would suggest that constituency projects be
excluded from annual budgets because they do not add any value. If the
inclusion of constituency projects continues in the budget, these crooks
would continue to pad the budgets.
What I expect the lawmakers to do is to
table their constituency projects before the executive in order for them
to be included in the budget. But what we have seen is the opposite.
Interestingly, padding is an English
word. But to my amazement, when I searched the word on Google, I saw the
pictures of our lawmakers. Our leaders should show a good example now
that the whole nation is bleeding. We want to see the benefit of the
change we voted for.
Had democracy and its ideals not made us
to jettison morality, constituency projects would, ordinarily, not have
seen the light of the day. Saying that constituency projects breed
corruption is like saying a thief steals solely to quench his thirst. On
the contrary, constituency projects are among the many ways these
politicians loot our collective resources. What is needed is a total
overhaul of the leadership recruitment process.
Constituency projects are not new in
this country. They have always been there. The issue raised naturally
leads to another question: do constituency projects have a
constitutional backing? If they are constitutional, padding the budget
with the projects would be uncalled for. If this is what the lawmakers
have been doing for decades, then Nigeria is in a deep trouble. Doing
such is an illegal act and should be treated as a criminal offence.
Those involved should face trial and sentence to jail. I still believe
many things will be unravelled as the case unfolds. It is high time we
brought to book those who have been feasting on the country. This will
serve as deterrence to others. Severe punishment should be meted out to
those who were involved in the scam.
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