Of Constituency Offices And Projects By Reuben Abati – TheNigerialawyer

Members of the Nigerian national assembly, and by
extension lawmakers across the country, have been under scrutiny
lately with regard to their engagements with citizen-voters whose
interest they are expected to represent in parliament. Two issues:
constituency projects and constituency offices. President Muhammadu
Buhari brought the issue of constituency projects to public
attention when at an event organized by the Independent Corrupt
Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), in
November, he lamented that there is very little evidence or benefit
to the grassroots of the One Trillion Naira that had been earmarked
for constituency projects in the last 10 years.

This is the main finding of a tracking report on Constituency
Projects conducted by the ICPC, the anti-corruption agency which
has further announced that the North East is the most affected
region where constituency projects were not carried out, or
abandoned either due to Boko Haram insurgency or the negligence of
the lawmakers from the area. ICPC is launching a probe. The second
issue is that of constituency offices. In its lead story of Monday,
December 2, 2019, The Punch newspaper focused at length on the
issue of constituency offices: “Five months after inauguration:
Senators yet to set up constituency offices – Lawmakers shun
constituents. People seek assistance for social events – Senators,”
the paper declares. I intend to deal with this latter issue first
and subsequently return to the matter of constituency projects.

Lawmakers are expected to have constituency offices in the same
manner in which they open campaign offices during the election
season. A constituency office is a contact address for keeping in
touch with the public, a place where the lawmaker can be contacted
by his constituents to engage and relate with him, submit petitions
for his attention and action, obtain feedback from him about his
work in the legislature and draw his attention to community
priorities or basically seek help from him or her. Every state in
Nigeria has a state of Assembly with members representing local
governments. There are 109 members in the Senate, located in the
Federal Capital Territory and 360 seats in the House of
Representatives. Every lawmaker represents a constituency, they
link national and state politics to the grassroots, reinforcing the
notion that politics is essentially local and people-centred. In
most jurisdictions, constituency offices are funded by parliament
or the executive, and the lawmaker gets a constituency allowance to
maintain a properly staffed office. Usually, the legislative
calendar is also structured in such a way that lawmakers are given
enough time within a year to enable them return to base to interact
with the people they represent.

The investigative story in The Punch, earlier referenced,
reveals what many Nigerians have always observed since the return
to civilian rule in 1999: that is the alienation between
parliamentarians and the people, and the urgent need for
parliamentary strengthening within the context of citizen relations
and wider local, political and sociological forces. The Punch
reveals that most law makers in the Senate, five months after the
2019 general elections, do not have any office in their
constituencies. The same can be said for other lawmakers. Those who
probably have offices are in the minority. This is the Nigerian
way. Politicians tend to remember the people only during election
seasons. In order to get the people’s votes, in those places where
the people are still allowed to make their own choice unfettered,
the political office seeker needs to be seen to be popular with the
people, he or she must have followers and supporters. A politician
seeking a position cannot close the doors to either his office or
home: he must maintain an open door policy. Many of the visitors to
his home or campaign office may even be members of the opposition
parties. He is obliged to welcome them and find ways to encourage
them to switch their loyalty to him and his party. In the home of a
Nigerian politician, food and drinks during the campaign season
must not be in short supply. People will eat and drink and collect
transport fare, even if they live within the neighborhood. The
politician needs them. They too need him. They serve one purpose in
particular: apart from keeping the campaign machinery going; they
also help to keep hope alive. They will never tell the politician
that he would lose the election or that he is unpopular. They will
oxygenate him with so much hope, he would begin to see visions of
overwhelming victory. Of what use is a Nigerian politician if
nobody visits?

But this relationship often changes shape and colour immediately
after the elections have been won and lost. The politician who
loses election shuts his doors and withdraws into his shell to go
count his losses in the privacy of his space. The supporters also
instinctively withdraw, leaving behind only a core group of close
associates. The crowd would eventually thin out: the same
supporters who predicted victory would quietly move on to support
the winner of the election. Politicians are pragmatists: even if
they are die-hard party members, you can legitimately expect some
of them to jump ship. But the major point in The Punch lead story
is how politicians having secured victory at the polls tend to
abandon the people. They become inaccessible. They lock their
gates, now manned by fierce-looking security guards or able-bodied
men or both. The same man who used to buy roasted corn by the road
side and personally serve the political crowd food, suddenly hides
inside bullet proof vehicles, and siren-blaring convoy. He is now
“Your Excellency.” If he is a Governor, he moves into Government
House which is a no-go-area for ordinary people. If he is a Member
of the House of Assembly, he becomes “Honourable” and he leaves the
neighborhood for Legislative Quarters, in a secluded part of the
state capital. Don’t expect to see him coming around to play
football with his age mates as he used to before he rode on the
people’s back to the Assembly. If he is elected as a member of the
National Assembly, he would rather hide in Abuja. He may open a
constituency office, but you’d never find him there. The poor boy
or girl who occasionally keeps the place open to create an
impression, has a ready answer: “Honourable is in Abuja!” “Senator
is not around.”

Thus, the objective of representation/accountability, citizen
engagement and feedback, is defeated. The Punch in its story
interviewed a number of Senators. While one or two affirm that they
run constituency offices, the overall impression is that this is
not the case generally. And why? We are told that some lawmakers
stay away from their constituencies for security reasons. Lawmakers
from the North West and the North East run away from their
constituencies either because of Boko Haram insurgency or the fear
of being attacked. One Northern lawmaker was once stripped naked
and given the beating of his life by his constituents. Lawmakers
from the East are afraid of kidnappers… But generally, lawmakers
complain about the pressure they face whenever they have any
encounter with their constituents or other members of society. It
is as if nobody is interested in their main assignment of defending
the people’s interests and making laws for good governance while
also acting as a check on the Executive arm of government. The
people are just interested in financial help: they want the
lawmaker to help pay hospital bills, feed their families, get jobs
for their children, sponsor a wedding, attend a funeral and make a
generous contribution towards every expense. Community groups,
religious bodies, market women associations, the council of church
elders, the association of herbalists and spiritual masters…they
all seek financial help from the elected representative. Many are
unable to bear the pressure. They simply run away, or go into
hiding. They hide in Abuja or the state capital. Nigerian politics,
before or after the election, is so money-driven, a weak politician
may be tempted to resort to armed robbery in order to live up to
expectations. The crisis is complicated by the lack of
opportunities for the people, and the widespread epidemic of
poverty in the land. The country lacks a social security system.
Politicians and their political parties have no poverty reduction
strategies. Nonetheless, no politician should run away from the
people because they seek help from him or her. Constituency work is
part of the lawmaker’s mandate. To build a positive reputation, he
must connect with citizens and other politicians.

What often happens in this regard, is that as another election
cycle approaches and the politician needs the people again to
achieve his ambition, he suddenly rediscovers them. He goes back
home bearing cash and other gifts. Each politician has his or her
style: they could distribute cash, clothing materials, phone sets,
grinding machines, generators, motorcycles and tricycles, bags of
rice, kegs of ground oil. Food is prepared. A musician is invited
to entertain the people. But the politician makes sure the
photographs of the items to be distributed are carefully taken and
the event itself is video-taped. Journalists are invited to cover
the event of course. The politician grants interviews professing
his love for “my people.” Usually, the money that is spent on
publicity and self-promotion is more than the actual amount spent
on the people. It is also common these days to have anyone in power
set up a Foundation. One lawmaker bought two electric poles and dug
a borehole for his community. Another one built a latrine. Both men
advertised the events in newspapers and on national television!

These politicians would later turn around to boast that they
have provided constituency projects in their communities. They are
rewarded with chieftaincy titles, the Knighthood of Forgotten
Saints, or some other decorations. But what is a constituency
project? Do National Assembly members fund constituency projects
from their own pockets? If they do, so why would the allocation for
Constituency Projects be a matter of contention between the
Executive and the Legislature during every budget preparation and
consideration process? If constituency projects are budgeted for in
Nigeria, is the Fund handed over to each lawmaker as is the case in
some other African countries? Since President Buhari and the ICPC
brought up the matter of constituency projects in the last month,
members of the National Assembly have been having a meltdown trying
to defend themselves. Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of
Representatives in response to the allegation that Constituency
Projects have swallowed over a Trillion Naira, responded that only
N500 billion was released. So, who and who got the N500 billion?
Where are the projects? Who are the contractors? Other lawmakers
have told us that their only connection with constituency projects
is to help identify priority and useful projects in their
constituencies. They insist that the projects are implemented by
the Executive through Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs)
and if anybody is to be held accountable it should be these MDAs.
This same position was repeated by Senator Ali Ndume, (Borno South
–APC), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Army, in response to the
ICPC claim that the worst abuse of constituency projects is in the
North East where Ndume hails from. My gut feeling is that we
certainly do not know enough about these constituency projects.
There is something we need to know that nobody is telling us. At
least not yet. For example, are there members of the National
Assembly who also double as contractors to the MDAs for the
execution of constituency projects?

Senator Ali Ndume says he is proposing a bill for the
establishment of a Commission to track constituency projects. I
disagree. Monitoring and evaluation of constituency projects is
important, but Nigeria does not need a whole Commission to do that.
The first step would be for the National Assembly to have a proper
data base on constituency projects: which project is being done and
where? Who is the lawmaker behind it and which constituency, MDA or
contractor is involved? The relevant Committees of the National
Assembly should also monitor the projects and the disbursements,
and every detail should be made public, particularly for the
benefit of the constituents who are the direct beneficiaries.
Perhaps when the constituents are properly informed about these
projects, they will have every reason to ask questions. For now,
politicians throw money at their constituents whenever they can,
while accountability is shoved aside. The political parties also
have no structure or means for monitoring the performance or the
commitment of their members in public positions. That too, must
change. Every politician in public office must open a constituency
office and make himself or herself available to the people. A new
typology of role playing for Nigerian politicians and a strategic
pattern of behavior aligning district behavior with national
responsibilities in general is what we need.